Something-Anything
by mindependent
Summary: He left her broken, he left her dead. With nobody else with her, Bella finds herself chasing the thrill being near the redhead gives her. She will do anything to feel alive again. Something-Anything. [Canon divergence in New Moon.] Contains Violence. Bella/Victoria. Now complete.
1. One More Time

**Chapter 1:**

 **One More Time**

Bella was jostled out of her mind when a loud thud sounded somewhere near. The cutlery ratted on the table and a jug fell down spilling the water and the hollow sound of metal rang into her ears.

"This is enough Bella." Charlie said angrily, in a loud voice. He never raised his voice in front of her.

"I am sorry, what?" Bella asked in a dull voice, her attention on the fallen jug.

"I said this is enough. I am sending you back to your mother." Charlie said in a deep voice and that suddenly made Bella aware of what was going on.

"No! Why would you do that?" She asked in a confused tone.

"Because you are not living Bella. You are not even alive, you are lifeless. You are dull and you are not acting like yourself. It's been four months Bella. Four months." Charlie said in an irritated tone, but there was concern evident in his voice.

"But my home is here. I like Forks." Bella protested in a feeble voice.

"Phoenix is also your home, Bella. You should go live with your mom and get a change of surrounding. It would help you heal." Charlie said in a soft voice.

"But I like it here. I will not go." Bella said in a moody voice.

"Then what will you do here?" Charlie's voice had once again hardened. "You just sit here, moping and you do things lifelessly. All you do is go to school and that is it. You don't do anything."

Charlie took a moment to calm down and when he did, he said in a soft voice, "It's been four months Bella. He's not coming back." Those words hit Bella harder than they should have. "You have to let it go now. You should get away from here. Change of surrounding would help you get over him."

That was what Bella was afraid of. If she got away from Forks, then there was a chance that she would one day forget everything that had happened here. She did not want that. He might not be here anymore, but she loved him. He might not have loved her back enough to be with her, but she loved him. It was pathetic, she agreed, pining over and being depressed for someone who did not care enough, but she loved him.

Bella knew that once she was out of here, she would slowly start to forget all that happened at Forks. She did not want that. This small town in the middle of nowhere was worth more than anything else. She did not want to lose all the supernatural memories it held, no matter how sad in the end they were.

"No, I will not go." Bella said determinedly. "I am fine. I have a plan tonight with Jessica and Angela. We are going for a movie."

"It's not just about going out with a couple of girls Bella. It's about living like a normal person." Charlie stressed, "You are not doing anything. You barely talk, you barely eat. You cry and yell for him every night. You always keep staring at the door like he is gonna come any moment. He is not coming back Bells. He is gone. He left you." Charlie said stressing the word and it hit Bella like a sucker punch. Her eyes moistened, but she vowed she would not cry anymore over him. She was past that.

Bella closed her eyes tightly to erase the tears that had formed in them and then opened them again, once more. This time she nodded determined, "I am fine. I will go with my friends tonight." She said in a toneless voice and Charlie just looked at her weirdly but did not say anything.

 **ooo**

It took a lot convincing Angela and Jessica to go out for a movie and some shopping, the latter more than the former. They were both hurt and agitated over the fact that Bella had barely acknowledged them in the last few months. They both had tried to reach out to Bella to help her, but after Bella rejected their help many times, they both had let the girl wallow in her own pain.

Both of them looked at her strangely when she said that she wanted to go out for a girl's night. They had had a private talk between them and even then, it took both of them some time to decide whether or not she was serious enough. However, finally, Angela agreed to it and made Jessica agree too.

The ride to Port Angeles was a little awkward. Bella did not know what to say. So much had changed in the last four months that she did not know what she would talk about. During the ride to the city, Jessica and Angela talked and Bella sat in the backseat looking out of the window.

The movie itself was not something very entertaining. There was some story about a werewolf girl who had fallen in love with a vampire, which ended in a heartbreak- the boy dying in the arms of his lover. Bella scoffed cynically. It was like the story of her life, but only that she was more of a zombie than a werewolf and her lover had left her, not died.

Bella was glad that the movie ended in just over an hour. If she was honest, she was regretting making them agree for this trip.

The shopping was bit more of a better affair than the movie- she really needed some new clothes and other things, the supply of which was dwindling rapidly and she could not ask Charlie to get her some.

A hour of shopping and an early dinner later, they were ready to heed back to home. Bella could not say that she enjoyed the trip. She felt alone and isolated most of the trip, she did not talk much with either Angela or Jessica and they had even parted ways for some time when they needed different things.

Both of her companions were walking in front of her laughing at some joke between them and Bella felt left out of the group. Honestly, she could not blame them- they were her own actions that had led her to being an outcast once more.

Bella turned her head to the right and saw something that made her stop walking. There was a dingy, small building at the corner of the road with a green neon sign that read _Classics_. A few people were sitting outside of the building near the sidewalk. They were a group of about ten-twelve people with about six motorcycles and they were laughing boisterously.

Some thought struck Bella and she started walking towards them slowly when suddenly and quite unexpectedly, there was a voice in her ears that she wanted to hear so desperately.

"Stop Bella." The voice said, "Turn back. Don't go there."

Bella looked to her right. He was there. He was standing just beside her and he looked just like she saw him the last time, pale and beautiful with messed up bronze hair. He was frowning at her. "Don't go there Bella." He said in a whispery but irritated voice.

"You are not real. Don't tell me what to do." Bella said to him and started walking towards the men just as a challenge for him to stop her.

His misty form disappeared from his original position and formed just beside her and said in the same voice, "You said that you will take care of yourself."

"You are not here." Bella told him and continued walking.

Suddenly a hand gripped Bella's arm and pulled her back. She came face to face with Jessica who was scowling at her angrily.

"What are you doing?" Jessica hissed at her looking towards the men who were now glancing in their direction.

"I thought, I knew some of them." Bella muttered confusedly and looked back. He was not there. She sighed.

Jessica dragged Bella back to her car and the whole ride back to Forks went in silence.

 **ooo**

Bella stayed awake most of the night pondering over what had happened that day. She had imagined him, no she had seen him. Clearly. Down right to every single detail. Every single smooth, pale texture of his skin. It was too real not to be true. But she knew it was not real, he was not real. It was like he was projecting his image from somewhere far off. Surely that was not possible.

Bella did not know what it was or whether it was real or not. The one thing that she knew was that she liked it. The feeling of seeing him once again in real life, even though it was just through her imagination was too overwhelming. The feeling of adrenaline coursing through her body might have been what triggered her subconscious mind into visualizing him.

However, Bella also knew that she wanted to see him again. She did not think that she could live without seeing him, not after that she had had a taste of seeing him like that. She just had to find a way to feel the thrill surrounded by the danger to let adrenaline work its course. However, she was not senseless enough to harm herself for that.

Bella decided that the next day she would go back to his home. His house, where the memories of him were strongest. She hoped that if she was surrounded by his very essence, she would be catapulted into seeing him once again.

Bella fell asleep making plans of what she would do the next day.

Her dreams were a jumble of multitude of things, most of which she could not comprehend.

 _There was a werewolf who was running towards some place deep into the forest and Bella found out that she could run at the wolf's pace, chasing it._

 _The wolf stopped beside a tree and turned into a girl. She was the same girl Bella saw in the movie. The girl looked at the tree smiling and a tall black man jumped out of the tree. The werewolf girl wasted no time in hugging him._

 _"Oh, Adrian." The girl said lovingly, "You have no idea how much I missed you. It was painful being away from you."_

 _The vampire said nothing and kissed her. They were talking and kissing and Bella was watching with fascination when suddenly the vampire changed into him._

 _He looked at Bella with anger in his eyes, "I told you to stay away from them. Why did you not listen to me?"_

 _"You are not here. You left me. You cannot tell me what not to do." Bella said in an accusing voice._

 _"You broke your promise." He said looking at her with disgust._

 _"Well, you did too. You said that we would stay together forever." Bella spat in anger._

 _He looked at her eyes full of rage, "You know what- it doesn't matter now. I have someone better." He looked at the girl in his arms and kissed her softly on the lips. "I love you Emma. You are my only love."_

 _Bella could feel her heart breaking in her chest. It was shattering into pieces. He had said that he was in love with her and now he was disgusted by her? Bella could feel the pain from that statement. She was not sure that she would survive that._

 _He held the girl's hand and went into the forest, not turning back a single time. Bella kept looking at them in case he decided to come back and take her. He didn't._

 _Bella felt tears moistening her eyes and just as she was about to sink down on her knees, a pair of strong arms caught her and held her up._

 _"Stop." A sultry, feminine voice spoke in her ears, "You don't need him. You've got me."_

 _The very next moment, two slender but strong, extremely pale hands encircled her waist and a kiss was dropped on her neck, sucking lightly. A mane of red hair landed on her shoulder. The lips kept kissing her neck and Bella was slowly turned back._

 _The moment she turned back, she came face to face with the brightest pair of scarlet eyes she had ever seen. There were unimaginable depths to them._

 _The most beautiful face she had ever seen spoke, "You don't need him Bella. I am all you need. I will love you. I will want you, in each and every way possible."_

 _"You..." Bella croaked, her throat parched. She could not remember the name of the vampire but knew that she was the one who was hunting her along with James. Was it something like Rachel or Katrina? Suddenly, she remembered, it was Victoria._

 _Bella could not believe that she was standing so close to the feral beauty. "Victoria." Her lips spoke the words as if in a silent prayer._

 _"Yes, my love. Say my name. Let me have you." Victoria said and opened her mouth. Two long fangs protruded out of her mouth and she lowered her mouth to Bella's neck._

 _Bella's heart started beating furiously in her chest. She was terrified. She was afraid that Victoria was going to kill her and she could not control her heart that was fluttering like a bird in cage. However, amidst all that terror, she was sure that she was excited._

 _Victoria lowered her mouth a couple of more inches and Bella woke up with a gasp._

Her heart was beating furiously and her clothes were drenched in sweat. Bella removed the thick blanket covering her body and after a few minutes, once again fell asleep, this time without any dream.

When she woke up in the morning, she could not recall the dream she had.

 **ooo**

Bella mustered up all the courage she had to take the tour to that place. One place that she so fervently wanted to go but was unable to acquire the courage after he left her. That place was a strange mixture of both happy and sad memories for her.

Bella said to her father that she was going out for some time to meet her new friends. Charlie would have been suspicious but seeing that she had been holing away her life in her bedroom, he did not say much, only to take care and come home not too late.

Bella slowly drove her truck around to the edge of the forest where she knew the road led to the house. It was four months ago that she had last come to this place, but that day was clear in her mind. She could recall each and every thing with vivid clarity.

Bella parked her truck far away from the house, however not too far away that she could not reach the place. She wanted to build up more of her courage to actually go through with the plan. She also wanted to calm her nerves by taking the long walk before she did anything.

What on the off chance if somebody was actually there? Would they allow her inside or send her away? What if he was there? What would he do? Tell her that he was sorry for braking her heart and take her back or tell that he did the right thing and she should stay away from him at all cost?

Bella was not sure that she would be able to take the rejection once again.

"Calm down Bella. You are overreacting." Bella gave herself a pep talk to move away from her truck and towards the direction where the house stood bleak and tall.

She slowly walked over towards the direction of the house, her nerves fraying. She knew that it was less likely that anyone would have stayed but she could not bring herself to think what she would do if somebody was there!

Bella sighed loudly. She decided that she would cross that bridge when the time came. However, it soon became clear that the house had not been resided by anybody in the last few months.

The lawn was full of grass that came up to her knees and weeds of all kinds were growing all around the house. The flower beds lay uncared and almost all of the flowers had died in the harsh weather. Esme did not like to keep her lawn uncared.

Just thinking of that name brought Bella more pain than it should have been possible. She tried not to focus on the hurt and walked towards the porch. However, the moment she walked on the porch, all of her nerves gave way and she was having trouble standing. She clutched the pillar tightly as a means of support to stay standing upright.

Bella was almost hyperventilating. She could not continue with this anymore. She had no idea that her heart would start behaving like this when she was so near to the place he lived in. She could feel the crushing weight of sadness and pain on her heart and wanted nothing more than to get away.

Bella stepped down the porch and walked back to where her truck was. Why did she park the truck so far away?

Suddenly something caught Bella's eyes and she looked towards her left, far left where she could swear that she saw something shining, like a vampire in the sunlight. But the moment she looked, it was gone, in a blur of red.

Bella could feel dread wash over her body. It meant only one thing- Victoria. The feral vampire had found her and would do everything to ensure that she was dead.

Bella started running. She did not want to die. She could not afford to die. She had not seen him. She could not die. It did not occur to her for a moment that no matter how fast she ran, Victoria would catch up with her in moments.

Bella kept on running, not looking back. It was a miracle that she managed to reach her vehicle without falling once. She quickly revved the engine up and started driving her truck at the maximum speed it could reach.

Just as she was about to breathe a sigh of relief, a voice sounded beside her and she shrieked loudly.

"You should not have done that, Bella." He was siting just beside her.

Bella screamed loudly and the truck swerved violently, almost going off the road. At the nick of the time, Bella tuned the steering wheel in the opposite direction as far as it go while gunning the brake with all her might. The truck swerved right and left for a moment, making loud noises until it stopped in the middle of the road. Bella had somehow managed to save herself and her truck from an untimely death.

Bella took a minute to speak until her heart had calmed down. She looked at him properly. He was the same as ever, but this time, his expression was marred by disappointment.

"Why did you do that Bella?" He asked frowning.

"I did it for you." Bella said calmly. "I did it so that I could see you."

"That was irresponsible Bella. You could have gotten hurt." He was still frowning.

"Well, you left me alone. Why did you leave if you wanted me to be safe?" Bella asked hurt.

"I did it to keep you safe from us." He said in an irritated voice.

"Yes. Like the woman who is chasing me." Bella muttered cynically and he turned away, having no answer for her.

"Still, you should not be reckless Bella." He told her in a soft voice.

"That is the only way I get to see you. I am not going to change that." Bella said disinterested in the conversation.

"Think about it Bella." He said in a stern voice. "What would it do to Charlie if you were to lose your life being reckless?"

"You lost the right to tell me anything when you left me. Do not play that card on me." Bella said irritated and he just looked away, his lips tight.

They both sat in the truck in silence the whole way back home and the moment Bella parked, he swirled like a mist and disappeared. Bella cursed loudly remembering the near-death experience she had.

She could not sleep that night. She was afraid that Victoria would come to her chasing her trail and there was nothing that she could do to prevent that.

However, she was not worried for herself. She was doomed anyway. She was worried for her father. Her father who had nothing to do with this and should not get caught up in between. Bella knew that the best she could do was to offer herself up so that her father was left unharmed. She had no idea though if Victoria would truly take on that offer.

She slept with a baseball bat and a can of pepper spray with her beside her pillow. She was aware that they would do nothing against someone as formidable as a vampire but having them with her kept her mind a little relaxed. She slept fitfully that night.

In the next morning, when she woke up and saw that both she and her father were not only alive and unscathed, there was no sign of Victoria, she could not help but breathe a sigh of relief.

Every night, she would go to sleep thinking that night might be her last and every morning when she woke up alive, she started believing that Victoria might have left for good.

After seven nights in a row of nothing going wrong, Bella finally ditched the baseball bat and the can of pepper spray.

 **ooo**

Bella decided to go back to the Cullen residence three weeks after she had convinced herself that Victoria was gone for good and would not be coming back.

This time Bella marched to the house with determination etched on her face. This time, she was ready. She knew that the last time she was here, she had a sense of foreboding. She was wondering what would happen if somebody was there. This time, she was prepared. She knew that the house was abandoned, desolate and empty. She would not find anyone here.

She stopped the truck in the driveway and got up without wasting any time and stomped over to the porch, before she lost her nerves. The last time, she knew that she was trying to be quiet and sneaky and that was the reason she had a panic attack. So, this time, she was trying to be as loud as possible.

Suddenly, something swirled in front of her and he was there- just as gorgeous as ever. His lips were set in an ever-present frown and he was looking at her with disappointment. That's what he always looked- disappointed. He never looked happy or cheery or even smiling.

Bella knew that when even her imagination was disappointed with her, she really was screwed.

"Why are you doing this Bella?" he asked in a gloomy voice.

"I don't know. You tell me." Bella said casually.

"Don't do this Bella. Please." He pleaded.

"Oh, why not?" Bella asked in a far too oblivious voice.

"You know this is dangerous." He said giving her a strange look.

"I know this is dangerous. That is why I am doing this." Bella said sighing.

"Why do you have to do this Bella?" He asked in a whispery voice. While talking to him, Bella had not realized that she had come very closer to him and they were practically sharing their breaths. If she wanted, she could lean just a little and kiss him, if he was real, that is.

"I have to do this." Bella closed her eyes. She could feel the tears threatening to spill out.

"You don't have to do this Bella." He said looking at her intensely.

"I have to do this. This is the only way I can feel closer to you." Bella said in a sad whisper.

"You don't have to make yourself feel threatened to be closer to me Bella." He said in a pained whisper.

"I have to. This is the only way I get to see you. I know you are not real, but I will take everything you can give me." Bella pleaded.

"You have to let me go." He said seriously.

"I won't." Bella fired back instantly.

"You have to. I am gone. Go find somebody else. Live your life." He said in a soft whisper.

"I can't. You are my life." Bella felt like crying.

"No. You have to forget me. I was too dangerous for you. I had to keep you safe from me and my family." He said displeased. "I don't understand why you have to risk your life for that."

" **Because that is the only way I can see you one more time Edward."** Bella screamed and then suddenly, it became real. He was not 'he' anymore, he was Edward. It all became real. What he was, what he did and the last four months became real.

All those times, she was trying not the let the past affect her, but now it was real. Edward, his love had left her.

"I need the danger to see you again. I need to feel like I am being hunted to know that you are with me. I know it's wrong but I cannot think of anything else. I can't live without you." Bella muttered brokenly. Edward just shook his head ruefully and disappeared in a swirl.

Bella took a few moments to calm her heart down and then she looked up. What she saw almost made her knees give away.

A very pale and beautiful, feminine face was looking at her through the window on the second story of the house. A mane of flaming red hair accentuated the wilderness of the woman and her lips were set in a thin frown.

Bella knew that there was no way Victoria was oblivious of what might have happened. She must have seen her altercation with her imagination, if she had not heard her coming from a mile away.

Bella knew that no matter what she did now, it would lead to her untimely demise. She only hoped that Victoria would leave her father unharmed. With a determined expression on her face, Bella marched up the porch and pushed open the door which opened easily.

She went into the house ready to meet her doom.

 **ooo**

Victoria was gliding down the stairs in all her feral beauty. In that moment, Bella could not help but think that Victoria surely was acting like an honorable host. Bella laughed internally. It could not be further from the truth.

The moment Victoria reached the end of the stairs, Bella smiled sheepishly and looked down.

"Hi." She muttered casually. "I am sorry for shouting. I had something to clear with my conscience first." Her heart was thudding in her chest and Bella was sure that Victoria was aware of this fact too, but she tried to play it cool, trying to delay the inevitable as long as possible.

"Why are you here?" Victoria asked emotionlessly.

"I just thought that I should come back here you know, to remind myself of the old days. I had no idea that you would be here." Bella said casually as if she was chatting with an old friend.

"You should not have come here. You are a fool." Victoria said darkly without any compassion in her voice.

"That's what he said." Bella muttered to herself cynically.

"Tell me, Miss Swan, why are you so casual and uncaring even though you are in my company? Are you suicidal or plain insane?" Victoria asked with a sneer. "You must be well aware that I am someone who does not indulge into pitiful activities like drinking from animals. Yet you are unconcerned."

"Tell me about it." Bella muttered cynically. It was not meant for Victoria's ears but regardless the vampire heard her.

"I don't know." Bella muttered loudly when she saw Victoria looking at her with her eyebrows raised high.

"You should have heed to the warning I gave you the last time you were here." Victoria said darkly.

"Well, I am not so bright then, am I?" Bella asked rhetorically, "For I stand here in front of you without a single thought?"

Victoria laughed mirthlessly. "It looks like you have grown a spine since the Cullen family decided to sever all ties with you. Well you certainly did not talk that much then."

Bella's heart lurched in her chest when Victoria reminded of her sad and gloomy life, "Can you be a little more sensible about that? I know that I have lost everything, but you don't have to throw that in my face." Bella snapped in a rough voice.

That was obviously a very wrong thing to say because the very next moment, Victoria was in front of Bella holding her neck in her grip. She was not squeezing it, but the sudden movement caused Bella to make a strange choking noise.

"Well, well, well, you are a fool after all, so blatantly flirting with danger without any regard for your life." Victoria chuckled. "Tell me, how should we do this? A mate for a mate?"

Bella's eyes were almost bugging out of her sockets. She had no idea that Victoria would really go on to kill her. Up until that moment it was a possibility, but now it became the reality.

Bella's throat went dry and she could feel clammy and suffocating. She tried to loosen Victoria's grip off her throat, but she could not even make the vampire's fingers move away.

"No please, no." Bella pleaded trying to push the vampire away.

"Not so brave now after all." Victoria gave a single heartless laugh and slammed Bella on the opposite wall dangling her by her throat. However, she was still not squeezing her hard enough to choke.

The harsh reality of the situation sunk in and Bella felt tears threatening to spill. She realized that any moment she could die and found out that she was not ready to die. However, in the back of her mind, she also knew that there was no Edward in this dangerous situation. Was it all a fluke then?

"Finally, I get to avenge my mate." Victoria laughed like a madwoman with a manic glint in her eyes. "Any last words?" she asked Bella cocking her head to one side.

Bella was not above begging, "No please. Don't do this. Let me go." She said sobbing.

"Why? Did they let James go? Did they even pause to think that it would hurt me?" Victoria asked, her voice full of hate and anger and started to choke Bella.

"No… please…don't do…this." Bella tried to say but the words were not coming out of her mouth.

Victoria loosened her grip slightly. "What possibly could you have to offer me to spare you?" She asked raising a lone eyebrow.

"Please…let me go. I won't tell anyone about this." Bella sobbed, "Let me go."

"Can you bring James back?" Victoria asked with a fire in her eyes.

Bella did not say anything and Victoria squeezed harder, "Answer me." She shouted and Bella shook her head wildly. She was also trying to release herself from Victoria's grip by trying to dog her nails in her wrist but to no avail.

"Then, it is settled. I will kill you first and then will kill that family. But don't worry, I will save that boy for the last. I will show him your broken body." Victoria spoke with fire in her voice.

Bella squeezed her eyes tight and when she opened them, there was acceptance in them, "Can you at-least make it quick?" she asked in a resigned voice.

"I am afraid it doesn't work that way. Your heart won't pump blood unless it is working furiously. And it's a hassle to suck blood out of a dead person." Victoria said casually.

Bella's eyes were shining with terror. "Please." She muttered brokenly.

A few moments later Victoria said, "I'll make you a deal. I will kill you as painlessly as possible. I don't have to drink from you. You will only feel a momentary pain and then it'll be over."

Bella tried to gulp, but due the pressure on her throat, she could not. Finally, she just nodded defeated.

Victoria started choking her and Bella tried to submit but she could not. Her legs were dangling and she was flailing but could not move. She started having trouble breathing and there was a deep pain in her throat. Victoria squeezed harder and it felt like she would break her neck.

"Victo…ria…do…it." Bella said her eyes rolling in her head. Just a couple seconds later, Victoria growled loudly and threw Bella away who landed with a loud thud. Bella gulped down air as much as she could. After being deprived of it for so long, even the burning of her throat when she tried to breathe was a welcome feeling.

After a long time, Bella mustered all of her strength and got up. "Victoria." She croaked.

"Get out of here, Miss Swan." Victoria growled furiously.

When Bella did not heed to her warning, the vampire took a single step towards her, **"Get out."** She yelled and Bella needed no more telling. She picked herself up as gracefully as she could and got out of the house, into her truck and drove away. She kept looking in her rearview mirror the whole ride, but Victoria never followed her.

Bella was confused why did the vampire let her go and why was she not here chasing her to kill her. Nevertheless, she was glad that she was alive and decided not to ponder over what had happened.

She got into her room and quickly jumped into the shower, stripping all of her clothes. She felt disgusted with her body. When she looked at the mirror, she knew that she would have to try extremely hard to keep the strangulation marks hidden from Charlie.

One thing that she could not understand was why Victoria decided to leave her alive instead of killing her and avenging her mate?

Bella was not sure she wanted to know the answer.

 **ooooooo**


	2. Walking On Eggshells

**Chapter 2:**

 **Walking On Eggshells**

For the last twenty-seven days, Bella was walking on eggshells. And yes, she was keeping the count of it. How could she not- it was the most terrible thing that had happened to her and miraculously she had survived it, against all odds.

Bella had no idea why Victoria let her go and she could not even pretend to understand the reasons of doing so. Bella was, by no means, a psychologist and she could not read people just by looking at their face, but Bella could clearly remember seeing one thing that was etched prominently on Victoria's face- pain.

She was flabbergasted and still even after one month she was no closer to understanding why Victoria behaved the way she did. It would have been too easy for her- a little more pressure and Bella's neck would have snapped. Victoria could have either feasted on her or just dispose her body; either way there was no reason for the vampire not to kill her. Bella was not as naïve to think that her pleading had melted the feral vampire's heart and she had decided to let her go.

No matter how much her actions spoke so, Bella was not suicidal. She did not want to die and she did not want an early, painful death. So, she did not even try to do something insane. Moreover, the little fact that Edward had not made his appearance during what she thought was her last time, made her even more reluctant to do something like this ever again.

Hence, she decided to stay put. She stopped doing anything reckless, stopped going out of the house unless absolutely necessary and stopped interacting too much with her friends. The pepper spray and the baseball bat once again made an appearance on her bed and Bella easily fell back into the previous routine what she was into those last four months. Only this time, Bella was not depressed and heartbroken. She was paranoid.

She tried to act as calmly as possible in front of Charlie and she was damn sure that her acting skills had suddenly grown to the point where she could seriously consider auditioning for some big role.

Her friends once again shunned her, she had nobody to talk to and she was acting strange. Her eyes darted everywhere expecting Victoria to jump out from the shadows and sink her fangs in her throat. She was too jumpy and any sudden action made her jump and scream.

Bella was not so ignorant to think that Victoria had decided to skip the town after leaving her alive. She knew that Victoria was out there, waiting for the opportunity to get over whatever was stopping her from draining her dry. She also knew that once the redhead got that into her control, it would be her very last day on the planet.

Her nightmares had once again returned and Bella often saw herself being killed in some strange way, which she did not even know was possible. Though, thankfully, she kept that under control and did not let anybody know what she was going through. Not even Charlie.

The strangulation marks on her neck had now faded to a purplish-yellow and it did not hurt her anymore. The first few days were painful. It was a good thing that the weather was cold and she had an excuse to wear thick clothes that covered her neck or else it would have been hard to keep that away from Charlie.

It was a good thing too. Charlie would have taken it upon himself to find out who did it and Bella was not sure she could keep it in. She would definitely crack some day and it could lead to both her and Charlie getting killed.

She was never happier that Charlie did not seem to notice anything wrong with her.

 **ooo**

 _Victoria slowly walked up to Bella who was rapidly backing up in the room. She knew that Victoria was just toying with her, playing with her food and it was nothing more than a little fun to the vampire whose eyes had gone dark, black and void with bloodlust._

 _Bella's back collided with the wall and she knew that was it. Her time to die had come. Victoria was still walking towards her sensually, her mouth wide open in a huge grin with two long fangs poking out from the both the set of jaws. She opened her mouth to reveal all of her teeth and Bella gasped. They were all sharp and pointed._

 _Victoria came very close to Bella and braced her hands beside her head on the wall, effectively trapping her. The vampire did not have much height advantage on Bella, maybe just a couple of inches, but in that moment, Victoria looked so tall and imposing. The vampire grinned at her amusedly._

 _"We are once again here, Miss Swan. What do you propose we do next?" Victoria asked looking down at Bella._

 _Bella tried to speak but not a single word came out._

 _"Hmm, tell me?" Victoria asked softly, tucking a long strand of Bella's hair behind her ear._

 _The redhead leaned forward and Bella felt warm. How did it get so hot in here? Vampires were inherently cold creatures, but it seemed like Victoria's body was oozing out torrents of heat._

 _The feral beauty leaned forward, a single hand resting on the wall, the second one tracing a finger down Bella's cheek._

 _"I told you that when I would find you, I would kill you slowly. Well, I don't want to kill you anymore, I want to eat you. Slowly." Victoria said in a sensual voice and Bella felt growing hotter. That meaning could be taken into two different ways._

 _"How?" It seemed that Bella's voice had returned back only to ask that stupid question._

 _Victoria gave a full belly laugh. The voice sounded like music to Bella's ears who was standing very close to the vampire._

 _"Well, I cannot tell you that." Victoria said licking her lips, "So instead, let me just show you."_

 _The redheaded vampire slowly extended all four of her fangs and brought her mouth closer to Bella's throat._

 _But at the last moment, Victoria changed her target and attacked Bella's lips and… kissed her hard._

 _Bella felt a strange sensation pass through her body when Victoria's lips found hers. She felt herself melt into the kiss. There was no human way possible that she could not respond to the kiss. It was like air, she needed it._

 _About half a minute later, when the need to breathe arose, Bella tried to peel herself off the kiss but Victoria gripped the back of her neck tightly and pulled her forward molding their lips tightly._

 _About another half a minute later, Bella was having trouble breathing and started feeling like her heart would burst out of her chest. She was feeling dizzy and about to fall down but Victoria pushed her more towards the wall, breaking her fall. Bella was about to burst with the lack of oxygen._

 _However, amidst all of this, Bella could fell Victoria's hand that was now massaging her breast and the other that was inching down slowly. Bella was now full on wrestling to get Victoria off of her and failing. The hand kept inching lower and was resting on her abdomen._

 _Victoria kept on kissing her, one hand kept kneading her breast and the other kept inching downwards. It was now below her belly button, just above her…_

 _Bella felt out of her body. Her lungs were about to burst and her heart was slowing down like a helicopter blade. All she could see was darkness and pins and needles were attacking all parts of her body._

 _Suddenly Victoria broke the kiss and spoke in her ears with a husky voice, "This is how I will eat you."_

 _The hand inched downwards…_

 **ooo**

Bella woke up with a gasp. Her body was tangled in the sheets and somehow her pillow had landed on her face making it difficult to breathe.

She threw the pillow and the quilt off of her body and landed on the floor with a thump. She was breathing hard, gasping. She knew she was going into panic attack and her vision was blurry.

Bella quickly took off her shirt and laid down on the floor. The cold seeping into her body was a much welcome relief from what she was just feeling. After some time, her heart slowed down and her breathing returned to normal. She laid on the floor shirtless for a very long time until she started to feel chilly.

She got up on her bed and noticed that her shirt was completely drenched in her sweat and the quilt was a little damp too. How much was she sweating? Bella quickly threw her shirt away and laid down on her bed thinking what had happened in the dream.

One thing she could not understand was how had her dream turned into that? It was preposterous. Bella knew that it was not what she wanted to do with Victoria. She groaned when she realized that she was so obsessed with thinking about Victoria that all the dreams she had, now rotated around the vampire.

Bella was aware that she was attracted to Victoria. How could she not be? The vampire was perfect- inhuman beauty, inhuman grace and power and sparkling in the sunlight and a body fit for angels. She was deeply attracted to the redheaded vampire.

No, it was not Victoria that she was attracted to; it was the vampire in Victoria she was attracted to. That did not mean that she wanted to get close and intimate with the vampire. But Victoria was not getting intimate to her. She was killing her. Although the method of killing was questionable, Bella could say that it was fit for Victoria.

Kill her with a kiss. Kiss her until she could not breathe and dies painfully. Bella had to commend the way Victoria wanted to kill her. It was ingenious and deadly.

But would Victoria really want to kill her that way or Bella's paranoid mind was making that all up?

Bella groaned when the cold became too much to bear and she put on the quilt once again. She knew that her mind was playing tricks on her by making her dream of things that were not possible, at least not in this world.

She realized that it was getting out of hands. She could not spend her whole life in fear that someday Victoria was going to come kill her. She could not put her life on hold for Victoria to come kill her or either leave her alone.

Bella decided that it was enough. The very next day she was going to march up to the Cullen residence and give Victoria an ultimatum- either kill her then and there the way she wanted to or else leave her the hell alone so could spend the rest of her life in peace without worrying about getting killed by a sadistic, vengeful vampire.

Bella decided that she would go meet the vampire the next day, consequences be damned. Throughout that time, it did not occur to Bella even once that though she was high on adrenaline, Edward had not made an appearance once.

 **ooo**

Bella got up early in the morning and spent her whole morning trying to make herself courageous enough to take the tour to the Cullen mansion. Her brain and heart were at a conflict. Every few moments she would agree to go there and then the next she would start reconsidering her options.

Bella knew full well that this could be her last day on the planet and thus obviously, she was apprehensive about it. But she could not just let the matter be anymore. It would give her an early heart attack with the way she was worrying over things.

Bella decided to give Charlie a heads up in case she did not return home.

"Dad, I am going for a trek today. Might return home late. Don't worry, okay?" Bella said calmly while they were having the breakfast.

"Where are you going?" Charlie asked looking at her curiously.

"Well, there's a meadow I found out just beyond the Rogers Hill. I haven't been to there in a long while. Thought I should go." Bella said trying not to let Charlie show how anxious she was.

"Rogers Hill?" Charlie asked surprised, "That's about twenty miles from here. You planning on going that far?"

"No, I will take my truck there. I just wanted to visit that place there." Bella said trying to make Charlie give her his permission. She did not want to die knowing that she defied her father.

"But that's too far. There's wild animals there." Charlie said concerned.

"I will be safe Dad. I have been there a couple of times. There's no wild animals there- only squirrels, foxes and rabbits." Bella said smiling too brightly, "Please Dad. I have been cooped up here for too long. I just want to feel the air once again." Bella almost begged.

Charlie looked at her for a long time, then sighed, "Okay. But you better be safe." Bella nodded vigorously, "And you will return home by four." At this Bella faltered a little.

She might not return home back alive. However, she nodded a little hesitant not to show Charlie her fears.

An hour later, Bella was in her truck driving towards the Cullen residence. Her heart was beating loudly and she could feel blood pounding in her ears.

Bella did not know if she could drive the vehicle in such a condition, so she parked her truck off the road and began breathing deeply to calm her nerves.

Suddenly, Edward appeared like a mist beside her making Bella jump in fright. Her heart was once again beating rapidly, "Why you are so insistent on getting yourself killed Bella?" He asked in a disappointed tone.

"Because I cannot live like this anymore. Even if she does not kill me, I will die soon with the amount of stress I am taking lately. I am just asking her either to make it quick or leave me alone." Bella snapped.

"You should not do this Bella. She almost killed you last time." Edward said frowning.

"Yes. And it was you who decided to leave me alone, unprotected." Bella said loudly.

Edward looked down in shame, "I am sorry Bella. I should not have brought you into our world." His voice was full of sorrow and shame.

"Well, it's too late for it now," Bella retorted in a dark tone.

"Please don't do this Bella." Edward said in a pleading tone. "You'll die."

"Yeah? Well, newsflash Edward, I'm already dead." Bella shouted in a loud voice and her façade cracked for the first time in months. A lone tear slipped out. "I was dead the moment you decided to let me go, crushing my heart in pieces. Did you not even care that I loved you?"

"I did it to keep you safe Bella." Edward said monotonously.

"I would have been safer with you." Bella said in a broken voice. "Did you not love me enough to take me with you?"

"We were a danger to your life Bella. Anyone of us could have hurt you. I wanted to keep you safe," Edward said looking at her.

"Look how it turned out." Bella muttered sarcastically. "Now I am being hunted by a psychopathic vampire and nobody is there to save me." Bella gave an emotionless laugh.

"But why Bella?" Edward asked with a hint of desperation in his voice, "Why would you do something like this Bella? Why would you risk your life Bella?"

" **Because I love you."** Bella shouted with all the passion she had, "I love you and risking my life gives me the hope that you will come back to save me." She then began sobbing, "Risking my life gives me hope that you still love me enough not to let me fall into harm's way. But I think I was wrong. You don't love me enough to save me."

Edward had nothing to say.

"Just go away, Edward." Bella muttered brokenly and for once, Edward listened to her and disappeared in a swirl of mist.

Bella sat in the truck, sobbing for a very long time, admitting for the very first time that maybe Edward had left her for good and not coming back.

However, her altercation with Edward made her chicken out and she lost all the courage to go to the Cullen residence. She started her truck and turned back to the direction of her home without looking back.

Bella failed to notice the redheaded feline beauty sitting atop a tree branch, looking after her expressionlessly and had heard all the conversation that happened in the truck.

 **ooo**

Bella had decided that she could not keep her life on hold just because some vampire had decided to kill her. She needed to get out of the house more and she needed some social contact. If she had to let go of Edward she needed to find somebody else. A vampire would be preferable, but she would not say no to any other supernatural creature, though she would make do with humans if she had to.

One day Bella overheard Angela and Jessica talking amongst each other about another movie and shopping trip to Los Angeles and Bella decided to invite herself in.

"What? You out of your funk again?" Jessica looked at her with an irritated scowl on her face.

"Yes. I am sorry. I was not acting like myself." Bella muttered sheepishly, a faint blush on her cheeks.

Both Angela and Jessica gave her a no-kidding look.

"We cannot do this anymore Bella." Jessica said in an irritated voice. "You are pathetic." She spoke without any shame in her voice.

"Jess." Angela hissed nudging her with her elbow.

"No, Angela. She needs to hear this." Jessica said rounding on Bella. "You are so hung up on this Edward dude. I mean we all have breakups and find another person but you are like your soulmate died." Jessica said with anger in her voice.

Bella said nothing. She just hung her head lower.

"You are not the only one who has gone through heartbreak, but it's like the whole world has stopped moving for you." Jessica said scowling. Bella let her. She needed to vent her frustrations.

"Earlier you were so depressed that you barely talked to us for four months and now after that stunt of yours, you are plain paranoid. You keep looking all around acting as if he will jump out of the shadows. Why are you behaving like this?" Jessica had not yet lost her anger. She took a moment to take a deep needed breath after her rant.

Just a moment later, she continued, "If you want to be some depressed lovesick fool over a boy who may not have loved you, so be it. But don't blow us off and then come back to us. You need to find other friends for that." She stopped for a long breath after everything she had.

"I am sorry." Bella knew that she did not have anything else to say except for that. "I know that I am not a good friend to you" Bella said softly and Jessica snorted.

"I know that I have nothing to say about that. I was hung up on him for so long that I forgot that I had other friends too. I am sorry for that." Bella muttered sincerely. "But now I want to change. I want to let the past go. I want to experience new things. I am sorry that it took me so long to come out of my depression."

"You are forgiven Bella." Angela muttered softly and Bella smiled but Jessica was still scowling at her.

She decided to come forward with the truth. However, she could not tell them exactly what happened. She had no idea that her friends had noticed her strange behavior as of late. She knew that she had to give them something to trust. A good story likely.

"But this time, this was not the reason." Bella said softly but in a somber voice. "I was being followed by somebody." Both Angela and Jessica gasped at that.

"They threatened me and told me that if I told somebody about them, I would suffer badly." Bella looked up and saw that both of them had matching concerns in their eyes.

"Why didn't you tell your Dad Bella?" Angela asked in a serious voice, "He could have helped you."

"I was afraid." Bella said. She was not lying about that. She truly was afraid. Though, she could not tell anybody about it. "I was afraid they would harm either me or my Dad."

"Are you okay now? Are they gone?" Jessica asked with concern in her voice.

"I don't know. But I think so." Bella said shrugging. She honestly was not sure about that. "I have not been contacted by them in over a month. So, I think that they are gone now."

Both her friends relaxed. "I am sorry Bella for assuming something." Jessica apologized sincerely and Bella smiled nodding her head.

After some time, Jessica asked Bella, "So will you come with us to the movie?" Bella smiled and replied. "Yes. I would love to. It's been too long I've been myself. I want to change that."

Jessica smiled, "We'll pick you up at six."

Then the bell rang and they went to their classes.

 **ooo**

The movie was hardly romantic at all. Bella did not peg Angela to be the kind of person who would be interested in Sci-Fi. However, there were a lot of things now that Bella had no idea could ever exist.

The movie was something about aliens attacking other aliens and the humans getting in the crossfire and a lot of actions. Bella honestly forgot the title of the movie as soon as the movie began. It was boring.

They three were the only person in the movie hall along with just a few couples and one person who was sitting in the very back seat all covered in hoodie and dark clothes. Bella could not even identify if the person was male or female.

"I'll go get the popcorn." Bella said and the other two girls nodded seemingly bored by the movie.

Bella went of the hall and went to the bathroom. While she was washing her hands, her eyes moved towards the mirror and what she saw made her rooted to the spot.

A pair of red eyes was boring into her own from behind her. A mane of flaming orange-red hair was neatly pulled into the hoodie and only a few strands were falling out. The woman was tall and imposing and stood still like a statue. Bella's breath got caught in her throat.

She knew that Victoria was aware that she knew of her presence. Bella's heart started beating loudly in her chest. The person sitting behind her in the hall was nobody other than Victoria. Though she had no idea why she had not made a move on them.

Bella kept on soaking her hands and the vampire got out of the bathroom. Maybe she did not do anything as there were other ladies present too.

Bella took her time getting the popcorn and went into the cinema hall once again. She sat in her seat between both the girls when she turned her head, she saw that the person in the hoody was back there. Only this time, the hoody was lowered and Bella could see the mane of red hair.

The whole time Bella kept on looking back subtly and all the time Victoria did not even move. Not even when Bella was looking at her. Bella was sure that all of Victoria's attention was on her and not the movie, just like her attention was on the vampire.

After the movie was over, Bella slowly walked out the hall along with her friends. When she looked back, the hooded vampire was gone. Suddenly she bumped into somebody and tumbled to the ground. But before Bella could fall on the ground, a pair of strong arms gripped her, "I am sorry. I did not see where I was going." A soft feminine voice spoke.

The silky voice made her heart lurch. The vampire was standing just beside her holding her in her arms. Victoria made sure to show Bella her now soulless-black eyes and opened her mouth showcasing her pointy teeth.

The redhead steadied Bella on her feet and made a show of dusting off invisible dirt off her clothes, "Are you okay? I did not hurt you, did I?" The vampire asked in an innocent and honestly apologetic tone. "I am really sorry. Are you okay?"

Bella could only nod and Victoria grinned wildly, "Alright then. Hope we will meet again." She grinned in a feral manner and went away.

"What was that?" Angela asked coming from behind. "Who was that woman?"

"I don't know." Bella muttered a little shaken with her interaction with the redheaded vampire.

"Her reflexes were like crazy. One second she was there and the next she was stopping you from falling down." Angela muttered impressed, "I wish I had that woman's reflex. Man, what should I do to get a body like that?" Angela was talking to herself.

Bella swallowed back her answer which would have been like, 'Trust me, you don't want to.'

Jessica broke Angela out of her daydream, "Come on, we have to go shopping." And dragged both her and Angela to the nearest mall.

Bella was brooding the whole time she was shopping with her friends. She was not giving a lot of input and stared all around.

"Hey, Earth to Bella?" Bella flinched hard when a hand came into her vision and she almost jumped from the stool she was sitting on.

"What happened?" Jessica asked Bella, "You not enjoying the trip?"

"No, it's not that." Bella said looking around, "Just that there's a lot on my mind."

"What? That guy is still bothering you?" Angela sked concerned, "Did you see him anywhere?"

It took Bella a moment to get who Angela was talking about.

"No, nothing like that. Just I am thinking about that woman I met in the cinema hall." Bella muttered without thinking. It was a good thing that she did not say anything worth causing damage. For all she knew, Victoria was still stalking her.

Jessica snorted unladylike, "What? You are so off Edward now that you decided to turn lesbian?"

Bella blushed, "No!" she protested loudly but could not give a reason for her outburst. It was not like she had anything to say.

After a long time, when all of their shopping was done and it was getting late, they decided to get an early dinner and head home. While walking on the street to the car, Bella saw a hooded figure standing by a black car leaning on it slightly. A little of the wild red hair could be seen and Bella was sure that Victoria was analyzing her moves.

"You go ahead and have your dinner, I'll meet you by the car." Bella said and before any of the girls could say anything, walked off to meet the tall vampire.

 **ooo**

Victoria was leaning on the car when she saw Bella talking to her friends after something. She had been stalking the human the whole time she was in the city. She had even sat with her in the cinema hall and decided to show her face to her in the bathroom.

She also decided on the split second to make a show of colliding with her and helping her not to fall. The warm smell of the girl was too overwhelming and she wanted nothing more than to sink her fangs in the girl's throat and to bleed her dry.

Victoria had no idea why she just did not do that. It would have been easy, nobody could have stopped her and she could have gotten her revenge on the vampires. But no, something in her told her to stay put and not to harm the girl. Victoria was almost sure that the part of her brain that told her to hunt the woman down had stopped working.

"You go ahead and have your dinner, I'll meet you by the car." She heard the girl say to her friends and to her utmost surprise started walking towards her. She sniffed the air once lightly, there was nothing about the girl's scent that told her that she was afraid or even nervous. However, there was determination in her eyes.

The girl marched straight to her and told her in a no-nonsense voice, "We need to talk. Come with me." And to her amazement walked into a nearby restaurant.

Victoria was amazed at the girl's audacity to do such a thing without even flinching. Her mind told her to slay the girl at that moment and that possible, but she thought better of it. The place was full of people and killing them would be messy and would surely land her on Volturi's radar. She did not want something like that to happen.

Victoria followed the girl silently. She could silently agree that the girl had a natural sway to her hips that was enticing. She would even call her cute if she did not want to kill the girl.

They entered into the restaurant together and had just sat down when the waitress was beside them handing Bella the menu.

"Mushroom ravioli with breadsticks and a bottle of cola for me." She spoke without even looking at the menu.

The waitress turned towards Victoria, "Anything for you Miss?"

Victoria shook her head, "No, thank you." It was not as if she could have anything.

The waitress spoke again, "You sure Miss?"

"I am." Victoria spoke curtly.

"Please do try something here. We offer the best vegan dish in Port Angeles. You would not be disappointed." The waitress said flirtatiously, inching closer to the vampire.

"No, thanks." Victoria replied curtly without even looking at the girl.

The waitress nodded disappointed and went to get Bella's order.

"So, how are you?" Bella asked looking at her pointedly.

"That is what you wanted to talk to me about, Miss Swan? How am I?" Victoria was amused. The girl had no idea of small talks.

"Well, I could also start by asking whether or not you want to kill me but I don't think that it is the appropriate first-time question for my guest, so answer me. How are you?" Bella was still looking at her as if she honestly expected her to answer that.

"What makes you think I am your guest?" Victoria asked raising her eyebrows.

"Well, you are sitting with me in this restaurant about to have a talk. I think that qualifies you enough to be called a guest. Or do you prefer murderess? Now answer my question." Bella spoke simply without any hint of rudeness or impatience in her voice.

"I am fine, thank you." Victoria said coolly, "What about you?"

"Well, apart from the fact that I could get killed by a deranged vampire, I am mostly fine. Taking a lot of stress in a healthy dosage, but fine." Bella said casually as if she was discussing weather.

Bella took a complete minute to ask her next question, "Had any meal anytime soon?"

Victoria snorted the moment that question left Bella's lips and it made the said girl blush. It caused a lot of pheromones to be thrown at Victoria in heavy amount causing her to stiffen slightly. "What if I did?" she asked showing her teeth to the girl. Well, no fear. It amazed Victoria.

"Oh, it's okay." Bella was taken aback by the question it seemed.

"Why? Would it bother you if I did?" Victoria asked the question in order to see how Bella responds to it.

"No, everybody's got to eat. Just because you eat something different should not bother me." Bella said casually. The girl still did not show any sign of fear.

"What if I were to eat you?" Victoria asked Bella to gauze her reaction and what she got was pretty incredulous one.

Bella flushed heavily. It caused more of her pheromone to be discharged into the air and it made the vampire drool with venom. However, there was still no sign of fear. Odd.

"Please don't talk about eating me." Bella said bushing heavily.

"What are you…?" Victoria bean to speak but was cut off by Bella.

"Please don't. Talk about anything else but that. Please." Bella begged her, red surrounding her cheeks and neck. What was that about?

"Alright. Ask me what you want to ask." Victoria said still not understanding the girl.

"Why? Why should I ask all the questions?" Bella asked confused.

"Well, you are the one who invited me, so ask." Victoria rolled her eyes at the girl's stupidity. She was sitting with her murderess-to-be to have a talk and not knew anything to ask.

A minute later, Bella was still thinking and then she sighed heavily. "Okay. I am out of questions to build the setup. Tell me, why did you let me go?" Bella asked looking serious.

Five minutes passed before Victoria said anything. All that time Bella was just looking at her patiently, not a line of impatience etched on her face.

"I don't know." Victoria said finally, not knowing what to say. She really had no idea.

The girl was about to say something else when the waitress arrived with the girl's order. She carefully put the plates on the table and turned towards Victoria, "Are you sure that you don't want anything Miss?" the girl asked standing very close to her.

"Yes. I am." Victoria said shortly wanting to get the waitress off of her hair, who was secreting too much pheromones.

"You should really taste the dishes around here, Miss. Such a beautiful lady should not go without having anything. I would really like it if you did." The waitress said in a flirtatious voice. It looked like the disappointment from earlier had once again given way to courage.

"No, I am okay." Victoria spoke in hard tone and the waitress scurried off.

Victoria's attention was drawn towards the girl sitting opposite of her who was laughing softly.

"What's funny?" Victoria asked irritated.

Bella kept on laughing, "You know, this is the second time that I have been on a dinner with a vampire and the waitress has flirted with them." Bella said chuckling. "Man, why can't they focus on me?"

"No need to get so jealous, Miss Swan, I am not your date." Victoria said scowling.

"Oh, no. It's just rude, you know." Bella said.

Victoria just shrugged. Bella took the fork and spoon and started eating her dinner. Victoria decided to give her some time to eat in silence.

"You want some? It's good." Bella asked politely and Victoria just gazed at her sharply. Bella got into eating and it was full ten minutes before she spoke, "Do you want to?" She asked softly.

"Do I want to what, Miss Swan?" Victoria asked confused.

"You know, kill me?" Bella asked in a whispering voice.

"Do you want me to kill you?" Victoria asked raising her eyebrows.

"No of course not." Bella said vehemently. "But it would be nice, you know to have some warning before I am killed." Bella said softly, accepting defeat.

"What difference would that make?" Victoria asked confused by Bella's words.

"It would give me some time to dispose of some things that I don't want Charlie to find about." Bella said a little red in her cheeks, "And I would very much like not to spend my every day thinking it'd be last. I at least deserve that much." Bella said, her head ducked shyly. It stuck as odd to the vampire as the girl was sitting there calmly discussing her death.

"I guess you do," Victoria said shrugging.

"It's not good for humans- too much stress and I am taking that in heavy amount. If I have to die, I would at least like to spend my last days in peace." Bella said with a sad expression on her face.

"Tell me, Miss Swan, what brought this all up?" Victoria had no idea what was going through that brain of the girl sitting in front of her. "How come you have accepted your fate?"

"I am not a fool, Victoria." Bella said in a hard voice, "I know that you want to kill me and if you really did can you at-least tell me that in advance? Don't I deserve that much?" Her voice was hard.

Victoria shrugged, not knowing what to say.

She instead asked, "Why should I tell you all in advance and risk seeing you escape?" Victoria sneered at Bella, "For all I know, you could be hatching some plan to run away."

Bella laughed mirthlessly, "I know that you are not that stupid Victoria. Both of us are aware that if you want to kill me, nowhere I go, no matter what I do, you will find me. I am not safe. I have been close to vampires and I know how formidable you all are."

Victoria just looked at Bella. It seemed that the girl had accepted her fate that she had to die by her hands someday or other and was truly asking for a forewarning. Moreover, there were no physical signs attached with the girl that told Victoria she could be lying.

"Tell me." Bella's tone was hard, "Do you want to kill me? If yes, then tell me when or else get out of my life and don't hurt me anymore." This time there was no friendliness in Bella's eyes.

"I want to kill you." Victoria mirrored the same tone Bella had used, "And I will kill you. I just have not decided when." Then after a moment she said again, "But I will tell you when I plan to kill you. For now, you can relax, Miss Swan. You have some time left."

Bella nodded, relieved. The small smile on her face returned. She took a piece of napkin and wrote something on it.

She handed the napkin to Victoria and spoke in a chipper tone. "That's my number. You can call me anytime. Please do call me when you decide about it. Well, other than that, you can call me if you need anything."

Bella stood up, put the money on the table and got out of the restaurant towards her friends, leaving Victoria sitting with the napkin in her hands.

The vampire could not put a finger to what had just happened.

 **ooooooo**


	3. The Small Little Steps

**Chapter 3:**

 **The Small Little Steps**

Two months had passed since that fateful encounter with Victoria and Bella was now not as worked up as before. She had not gotten a single call from Victoria nor had the vampire done anything to her. The redhead had not even come to see her, threaten her or anything else for that matter. Though Bella had seen the redheaded vampire a few times walking down the road or jumping through trees, she had not stopped to look at her or even acknowledge her.

However, Bella knew what it was- it was a reminder from Victoria that she had not skipped town or left Bella for good, forever. The vampire was using her deceptive maneuvers for Bella to be aware that she was not safe. It was a message that there was nowhere she would go, nothing she could do that could save her.

Not that Bella was doing anything to guarantee her escape. She knew how formidable vampires were and she was not willing to take a chance. Victoria could kill her father and her friends out of spite in case Bella did manage to somehow escape. No, she could not sentence everybody else to danger just to save her life. Also, she could not take everybody else with her.

So, she did what she could- she went to school, made breakfast and dinner for Charlie and occasionally went out with her friends. One thing that she did start was to have fun. She knew that any day might be her last (it all depended on Victoria's mood) so she started to enjoy her life. She had no worries about her present, no expectations for the future so she spent most of her time trying to enjoy her life.

Bella was sure that someday Victoria would be there to finish her life. She was not naïve. Every time Bella thought about this, she would start feeling worthless. What her become of her life- caught in the middle of things she should not have and being useful for only one thing- to play with. She was not that stupid to believe that Victoria would change her into a vampire.

It had all come to a point where Bella's activities consisted of thinking about Victoria and then thinking about Edward and doing fun things. Somehow thinking about Victoria had taken a priority over thinking about Edward.

She still wanted to see him, still wanted to feel that ghost of a touch of his pale fingers, still wanted to see him chastising her over risking her life and still wanted to feel the thrill of the adrenaline his misty form would bring to her when she did something stupid. It had been a long time she had seen Edward- a very long time in person and a long time in her imagination.

Bella was not sure that she now loved him as much as she once did. All these drama regarding Victoria and fear of getting killed and doing things to take her edge off had slowly pushed his face to the back of her mind.

Charlie would have had a field day if he knew that Bella had not been obsessing over the boy the way she did the first few months. Though she might not have wanted his presence to go away, he was slowly fading from her mind. She was not just moving on from him, she was pushing him out of her mind because she had other important things to think about.

It made Bella wonder whether she was truly interested in him or was she just attracted to him being a vampire! Whenever she thought about it, she felt that the answer was one she would have not looked forward to. He was alright, but the main reason she was attracted to him in the first place was that he was beautiful.

Beautiful, not handsome, Bella had to remind herself. He was pale and godlike and beautiful and he had a charm about him that she had not felt before, not to mention he did not give her his time in the beginning. Moreover, he was graceful and fast and also glittered in the light like a diamond. But that was what which described every single vampire.

Whenever Bella thought about it, she could not help but think that she was not in love with Edward. She was obsessed with the vampire he was. Now that she thought about it, she could admit that she also thought of Alice and Rosalie as beautiful too. So, why was she not in love with them? It could be any number of reasons- they were already with somebody and Bella had leeched onto the first person who gave her attention. Oh, the irony of it!

It was why Bella agreed that she was not so hung up on Edward anymore. She had a different vampire taking up most of her mind. And even if she was attracted to Victoria, that vampire was out for her blood and wanted to kill her to revenge her fallen mate. She just did not know whether she was attracted to Victoria as a woman or as a vampire!

It made Bella wonder, if she had some lesbian tendencies she was unaware of- after all Edward was more beautiful than he was handsome. Bella could not help but groan, even if she was attracted to Victoria (which she could agree she was) that relationship was already doomed even before it could start.

 **ooo**

One day, while walking down the road Bella saw something that made her pause for a moment. Beside the driveway of a house, there were two motorcycles in a broken condition with a sign 'For Sale' on them. Bella, on a whim decided to buy the bikes. It would take a bit of repair and then some other things to get it into working condition and she had not enough money stored to get it all done.

Fortunately, the owner of the bike sold them to her at just hundred bucks and helped her carry the bikes on her truck. She knew that she could not take the bikes to Charlie so she decided to go to the only person she knew who had knowledge about repairing bikes.

Jacob was very happy to see Bella after a very long time.

"Hey Bella," He grinned, "Long time no see."

Bella was really happy to see him, "Hey Jacob." She said grinning herself, "Sorry I was busy."

"Busy with what?" he asked squinting his eyes. "Last I heard you had holed yourself up in your room and stopped talking to anybody."

Bella knew in that moment that Jacob was privy of her rough 'breakup' with her boyfriend, who had suddenly left her.

"Yes," she said sheepishly, "I was. I am sorry that I stopped talking to you but now I am okay. I am over him." When Bella said those words, she realized that they were true. She was way over Edward now.

"No offense, Bella" Jacob said apologetically, "But it was not wise of you to be so depressed about him. He left you. That happens. You should have gotten over him earlier. It's not wise being depressed over somebody who might not have loved you."

Bella nodded silently. She was now beginning to understand that Edward might not have loved her. As he had once said earlier, it was impossible for a vampire to leave its mate. The prime example was Victoria. She was still acting like a maniac even after one year of losing her mate.

"Yes, I know now." Bella said. "I realize now that I was just losing my life in depression over him." She then looked at him curiously, "But how do you know about all of these?"

Jacob looked down sheepishly, "Charlie. He is not exactly a soft speaking person whenever he is with Dad."

Bella laughed. She knew her father and Billy were gossipmongers like old grandmothers.

Jacob suddenly said without even thinking, "But the tribe was happy when they came to know that the Cullens had left Forks." He looked horrified at what he had just said.

Bella looked at him carefully for a few moments and then said slowly, "Because of those old stories circulating about them?"

Jacob looked ashamed, "Yes. I know it's all a bunch of rubbish stories to scare children at night, but they all rejoiced and burnt fires to celebrate it."

Bella laughed in spite of herself feeling anxious, "Man! How preposterous can these people be?"

Jacob laughed to dispel the tension, "Leave it all, now." Then he grinned once again, "So why are you here?"

Bella suddenly remembered why she was here. She grinned and then lifted the sheets from the truck covering the bikes. Jacob's eyes grew wide.

"Are those…" he asked not completing his sentence.

Bella patted her truck and grinned, "Yes they are."

Jacob wildly shook his head, "No Bella, you don't understand." He then looked at her "How much did you pay for them?"

"Hundred." Bella said and Jacob looked unimpressed.

"Hundred what?" He asked squinting his eyes.

"Hundred dollars. For both." She said smiling and Jacob jerked wildly.

"Hundred for both? Man, who idiot sold you these?" He was flabbergasted. "I would not have sold them for anything less than a grand each. These are Glamour 101."

"Then guess what?" Bella said grinning suddenly, "You can have one of them."

Jacob looked shell-shocked, "Really?"

Bella nodded, "Yes. But they require a lot of repair." She sighed. "But I don't have money to take them to some professional repair shop. That's why I brought it to you."

Jacob had a strange expression on his face, "I will do it for free, if you are giving this to me."

Bella looked unsure for a moment but deciding that would save quite a money for hers, agreed to it.

The repair work took three weeks and every weekend Bella would go and help Jacob with anything he would need or get him some parts that he demanded. A strong friendship started to develop between her and Jacob.

However, it was clear to Bella early on that Jacob had a huge crush on her, but it was not something she was interested in pursuing. She just did not get that vibe from him and also, he was not a vampire. Bella knew that being attracted to a vampire had taken her interest in anybody else and all she could think of was a vampire. Moreover, she was still not clear whether she was explicitly attracted to women or not.

When the bikes were finished and ready to be driven, Jacob took Bella to some place near La Push beach where they could ride their bikes in peace. Jacob helped Bella on the bike and she kick started the bike and immediately throttled the bike to its maximum limit. Within moments Bella was flying.

The onslaught of winds on her face was exhilarating. It had been a very long time that she had faced such the rush of adrenaline and exhilaration on her face while going at super high speed.

The last time she did that was the time when Edward took her to the mountain top in the forest to on one of their trips. He had carried her on his back and ran at full speed while coming down.

The memory of Edward suddenly made her imagination once more come up true. He was moving beside her in his misty form. Bella looked at him and smiled. He did not smile.

"Hi Edward." She said and he did not say anything. He looked a lot blurred than the previous times she had seen him.

"Don't do this Bella." He said in his whispery voice. Bella heard him loud and clear.

Bella laughed while taking a sharp turn to her right, "Isn't that the only thing that you always say when you see me in this form?"

Edward did not say anything to her. He just stood there looking at her sharply.

"You know for somebody who claimed to have loved me, you don't show it at all." Bella chuckled. She had no idea why she was feeling so humorous in this moment, "You don't ask about me, you don't tell me you love me anymore and you don't come back."

Bella turned left with full speed and took a moment to calm down. She was oblivious that she was going at such high speed that Jacob had to use his own bike to chase her down. But he was very far back.

"Were you even there or it was all a fluke of my mind?" Bella asked Edward who did not reply.

"Figures." She said a moment later. "You know what I think that you are just a part of my imagination. I don't remember you as loving me. I just remember you as keeping me safe from your kind." Bella spat the words in anger. "Well thanks to you, I no longer have to worry about that."

Edward did not say anything. He started to disappear. "Yes, go away Edward. I don't love you anymore." She shouted those words and felt lighter, as if those words had taken the invisible weight off her chest.

The bike lurched violently and Bella inadvertently pulled the brake with all her might. The last thing she saw was the ground coming closer.

 **ooo**

Bella woke up in the hospital to a concerned Charlie frowning up on her from beside the bed. It took her a lot of time to come to her senses of what was happening and when she did, she could see worry etched prominently on Charlie's face.

"Bella, how are you feeling?" He asked concerned. Right now, he was oddly acting like a momma bear.

"I'm fine." She said groggily.

Charlie's concern turned into anger a moment later, "What the hell were you thinking doing a stunt like that?" she could almost see the veins on his forehead.

"I don't know." She said meekly.

"You don't know?" Charlie laughed humorlessly, "You don't know? You were out for seven days."

"Seven days?" Bella was shocked to say the least.

"Yes." Charlie rubbed his face, "When Jacob called me that you were in an accident, I thought that you were dead."

"I'm sorry." Bella apologized. She honestly was sorry for putting Charlie into this position.

Charlie looked at her for a full minute before speaking, "You've got three fractured ribs, two fractures in right hand, a dislocated shoulder and severe concussion. They had to keep you sedated for a week for you to recover fast."

Bella gawked as Charlie spoke. She had no idea that she was into so rough.

"I'm sorry." She had nothing else to say.

"You're sorry?" Charlie asked with anger in his voice, "What you are sorry for? For not getting killed?"

Bella winced when she saw the look on her father's face.

Charlie then spoke softly, "Why are you doing this Bella? Why are trying to kill yourself over that boy? You were starting to recover and now you've gone back to all those self-destructive activities. Why?"

Bella looked ashamed, "I am not trying to kill myself Dad. I just was thinking that I could have some fun. I am over him, Dad. I really am over him."

"Are you really?" He asked with a hardness in his voice, "I don't think so. Earlier you were so depressed that you didn't do anything. Now you're risking your life for fun?"

"I promise you Dad, I am not trying to kill myself." Bella said with closed eyes, "I just thought that I could have some fun. I never thought it would turn into this." She said sincerely.

"Promise me Bella that you would not do anything like this ever again." Charlie almost pleaded.

"I promise you Dad. I won't do anything like that." Bella said. _But I will make sure that I have somebody stronger to save me in case something like this happens_. She did not add that part, though.

Bella was not sure how she would get Victoria to help her get the thrill of her life. That vampire was oddly as out of reach from her life as much she was closer. The redhead had not even called her once and to think that she would help Bella have fun whilst keeping her safe was absurd. But Bella did not want to think about that. It would take a lot of time for her to recuperate enough to be able to sit on a bike.

Charlie left her to her devices then.

On the sixth day of her stay in the hospital, Victoria visited her for the first time after the dinner date they had in Port Angeles.

Bella was drifting in and out of her sleep and she was feeling hot. She was turning her head to-and-fro and it looked like she was having a nightmare. She opened her eyes and saw that a lone figure was sitting in the chair beside her bed. Only the flaming red hair gave away her presence in the darkness of the night.

Bella for the first few minutes did not know anything to say. She then cleared her throat and said softly, "Hello."

Victoria said nothing. She just kept sitting on the chair for a long while. Only when Bella sighed and turned her head away, the soft bell like voice rang in the room.

"You really are an idiot, Miss Swan." Victoria said in a mocking voice without any hesitation.

"I know I am." Bella agreed. She knew that she was an idiot. She had nothing to dispel that fact.

"Going over sixty on a road like that without any attention on the road whilst talking to your imagination as if he were really there?" Victoria scoffed, "You really should get the award for the imbecile of the year."

"You were there?" Bella asked Victoria with surprise in her voice. "You heard me?"

"It was hard not to considering that you were shouting those words like your life depended on them." Victoria said crossing her legs.

"Why did you not come to save me then?" Bella asked with hurt in her voice. "You could have done that with little effort."

"Trust me, Miss Swan, it would have taken less than that." Victoria said arrogantly and Bella knew it to be true, "Why should I have, though? What are you to me to have done such a thing?"

"Well, considering the fact that that you want to kill me, you owe me that much." Bella said scoffing, "At least I am having fun in the last few days of my life."

When Victoria spoke, there was a coldness to her voice, "I don't owe you anything, Miss Swan." She said in a hard voice, "No matter how much you might think about that, I am not your girlfriend."

Bella was shocked. Why did Victoria use that term for describing their relationship? Did she know something Bella did not?

"What are you…?" Bella tried to speak but the redhead interrupted her once more.

"Oh, don't play that game with me." Her voice was full of impatience. "Don't you think I am aware of your body's reaction as I sit in your presence?" Victoria said with a sneer, "Your body gives more pheromones than a cat in heat. I can practically taste it on my tongue. Vey delicious."

Bella blushed heavily. She did not why but Victoria saying that did something to her insides. Bella knew that Victoria did not mean it like that. It must have had made her smell sweeter to the vampire and she was just using that a reference to describe her.

"Tell me Miss Swan," Victoria asked, "Is that reaction just for me or your start feeling like this for every vampire you see?"

Bella said nothing. She just huffed.

"Why are you here Victoria?" She asked tiredly.

"To see how you are doing and then to mock you some about your accident and point you how you are unsafe from almost all things being the pathetic human you are." Victoria said bluntly.

Bella felt her cheeks get red with humiliation and anger. She spoke angrily, "Oh, so if the only condition for you godlike creature to keep me safe is to become your girlfriend, then here it is," Bella said mockingly, "Will you, Victoria, the Queen of the universe and vampire extraordinaire do the honor of making such a pathetic human like me your girlfriend?" By the time, Bella completed her rant, she was breathing sharply and seething with anger.

"No," Victoria said casually, "What's the point in that? You're already going to die and I don't like to eat my partners."

Bella opened her mouth to retort in anger, but the words that tumble out were, "Screw you."

Victoria, in an instant was in Bella's face pressing her hard, cold fingers in her cheek. Bella cried loudly but her mouth was silenced by Victoria's hand. Her cheekbones were already sensitive due to her rough fall and Victoria holding her so tight was excruciating.

Victoria released her only when tears dripped down Bella's eyes.

"Don't take that tone with me, Miss Swan." Victoria said in a threatening voice, "You already are skating on thin ice. Don't make that crash you through the water. I can kill you in an instant."

"Then why don't you?" Bella asked tiredly. "Why do you just sit here mocking me if you are not gonna kill me anytime soon? Do you get some sick pleasure seeing me miserable?"

Victoria took some time to answer, "Maybe." She said in a non-committal voice.

Bella rubbed the tears out of her eyes, "Look Victoria. We both know that you are not here to mock me and tell me how pathetic I am. You don't strike me of that type. If you were to kill me, you would have done that five months ago. So, tell me again, why you are here?"

Victoria sat still in the chair for a very long time. Due to the darkness, Bella could not see anything on her face. But if she were to guess, she would say that Victoria looked conflicted.

"I don't know." Victoria said in a helpless voice.

Bella sighed loudly.

"Okay then," Bella said in a conversational tone, "Let's say that I want to try riding the bike again. What would I have to do to get you to come with me?"

"Why would I do such a thing?" Victoria asked offended.

"Humor me, please." Bella said looking at Victoria's silhouette expectantly.

"I don't know?" Victoria said shrugging. At least Bella could see her shoulders moving.

"Would you do that if I asked you become my girlfriend?" Bella asked with amusement in her voice.

"What are you talking about?" Victoria asked confused.

"Come on, Victoria," Bella said without feeling embarrassed. "You know it with proof that I am attracted to you. Why would I not want to give it a try?"

Victoria ignored Bella's question, "Don't you have your mechanic boy for that purpose?" She asked instead.

"I am not attracted to him." Bella said easily, "I think that being attracted to a vampire made me unable to like anybody else. Moreover, I am also starting to believe that I might prefer the fairer sex."

"You do?" Victoria asked with surprise in her voice.

"You looked so surprised about that." Bella pointed out, "I know that it might not have been that out in your time, but times have changed."

Victoria said nothing about that.

"So, tell me," Bella asked softly, "Would that be that ridiculous of a notion for us to be girlfriends?"

Victoria spoke in a strange tone Bella could not understand, "We only fall in love once. I cannot be your girlfriend even if I wanted to."

Bella suddenly backpedaled, "Whoa! Who said anything about love? I am not in love with you. I just am attracted to you."

"But I was in love with James." Victoria said a little loudly. "It was not like your high school crush where you and your boyfriend broke up. James was murdered by your boyfriend and for that I cannot forgive you." Her voice was laced with venom.

Bella heard the change in Victoria's voice, so she ditched the amused tone with which she was talking to her. "It was the same to me too. I was in love with Edward. I do not expect you to empathize with me, but at least you can understand. He was my love too. He was perfect."

Victoria gave a derisive laugh, "Stupid girl, you don't know what that kind of love feels like. I was with him for three hundred years and then suddenly one day he was gone." Her voice was full of sadness and anger.

"At least you had him for three hundred years." Bella said closing her eyes, "I did not even have him for one. You know, I had this dream about him where we would be together for centuries loving each other. That dream was taken away before it could even begin." A lone tear slipped Bella's eyes.

She had no idea why, but she found it easier to talk to Victoria about that. Maybe it was the fact that Victoria could understand what she was talking about. She might not sympathize with her, but at least she could understand.

"I loved James." Victoria said in a small, depressed voice, "I love him still today. If it wasn't for you and your vampire family to come in between, he would still be with me." Victoria growled the last sentence with as much hate and she could manage.

"You are allowed to be angry at him Victoria." Bella said understanding, "He left you all alone and got killed. But you should not keep that anger in. You know, you can blame him for everything he did to you." She said in a soft voice while bracing herself for the attack that would no doubt come.

But when she looked towards the chair after nothing happened, Victoria was long gone.

 **ooo**

It took eight more days for Bella to be discharged from the hospital and a month before she was almost healed. The injuries on her face were almost gone leaving only scars and her bones had begun to mend and she was not in a continuous session of pain. Apart from her not being able to do heavy things, she was fine.

She was grounded forever from going back to doing risky things and Charlie was always watching her like a hawk thinking she might be doing something destructive. Bella did not mind it, she more than deserved that behavior after everything she put her father through.

Sometime during her stay at home, Bella had lost her friendship with Jacob who had decided that it was a good idea to ask her out. Bella put him down as gently as she could but Jacob took a hit to his ego and stopped seeing her or even calling her. Bella was not fazed by that. At least it was one less person who would get caught in the crossfire between herself and Victoria. The less he knew about the vampire, the safer he was.

Now, Bella was left with nothing else to do other than stay at her home and ponder over things. She was still grounded except for some occasional trips with her friends, who now looked at her like she would do sudden drastic thing to end her life. However, Bella was not suicidal. She wanted the exhilaration, the feeling of being closer to Edward it brought with it. There was a sudden addiction in danger, in feeling threatened that she never knew was possible.

However, with everything that had happened in the last month, Bella had not gotten any time to be reckless, not to mention that Charlie was always breathing down her back. The most thrill Bella could get was when she was with her friends watching movies.

One such Friday, Bella came home after a trip with her friends to see that most of her items were rearranged. It was not actually a disorder, it was rather cleaner than before. However, the motto was loud and clear- Victoria was making Bella knew what her place was and where she stood with the vampire. Bella had no idea why the vampire kept on reminding her she was out for her life.

Bella looked out of her window and froze. She was down to her underwear and was in the process of removing them too. Victoria was sitting on a tree branch and it was clear that the vampire had all of her attention on Bella undressing.

The moment Victoria saw Bella looking at her, she disappeared.

Bella flushed heavily. Now, Victoria was stalking her too and looking at her half-naked. What was her motive? What was she trying to do? Bella decided to do something that she had never done before. She removed all of her clothes and pushed the window wide open.

"Come on, Victoria," She called into the night, "I am all naked now. You want to ogle me, you won't get a better chance." However, the vampire did not come or say anything.

Bella went to sleep that way- without clothes and windows wide open. In the morning, everything was as she left and there was no sign at all that the vampire had even come into the room, not that there would be one.

The very next day, Bella decided to take a tour to the Cullen residency to meet the redhead. She had no idea what she expected from the meeting. Maybe Victoria to start acknowledging her once again? However, slowly but surely, the idea was forming in her head that Victoria did not want to kill her anymore.

It took a lot convincing Charlie that she was going for a trek and not doing something dangerous. Her father wanted her not to leave the house at all, but she managed to make him agree to her wishes.

Bella drove over to the house and parked her truck in the driveway. The front door was unlocked, however there was no sign of the vampire in the house. Bella decided to snoop around a little. If the vampire was going to invade her privacy, she sure as hell was going to invade hers too.

A little while later, it was clear that the vampire was not in the house. So, Bella decided to take full advantage of the time to go through Victoria's things. Her search made it clear that Victoria had nothing on her apart from one or two spare dresses and a purse which contained a few fake IDs and a cell phone. Bella took the phone and called her own, thus getting hold of the vampire's contact number. How Victoria even acquired a phone was beyond her understanding.

Bella found something in the kitchen that surprised her extremely. A transparent refrigerator was kept plugged to the socket and it contained rows upon rows of blood bags. It was almost overflowing with blood bags. Surely Victoria would not have drunk from animals but she had totally forgone hunting humans! Bella could at least understand Victoria's reasoning. If she wanted to stay at a place for long, she had to forefend hunting humans as it would draw the attention of the authorities.

Bella reasoned that all of that blood must be from some other town as there was no news of someone robbing a blood bank. Come to think of it, Bella had not heard Charlie talking about any murders in the town that comprised of some animal attack. So, what the hell Victoria was doing?

After staying in the house for more than two hours, when it was clear that the vampire would not come back anytime soon, Bella decided to head back home.

She got into her truck and drove away unaware of the dark red eyes that were following her movement form the balcony of the third floor.

 **ooooooo**


	4. The Big Leap

**Chapter 4:**

 **The Big Leap**

Bella tossed and turned in her sleep. She was having a nightmare, it seemed. She groaned once and then shook her head wildly. "No." She moaned in a painful voice, then she was back to jerking in her bed. She thrashed a couple of times up and down and shook her head a few times.

She tried to take her hand out of the blanket covering her body, but her hand was stuck under her stomach. Her heart rate began to ascend. She began to sweat. "No, let go," She said once more, in a tearful voice. Her right hand was numb, being pressed under her body for long.

Then, she started having trouble breathing and then cried out loud. Suddenly she felt like falling from a great height and jerked awake in her bed, her heart pounding loudly in her ears. With her left hand, she removed the blanket and breathed a sigh of relief. She turned towards her left, but her right hand was pinned under her. It felt heavy.

She took her hand out from underneath her and started flexing her fingers. After a while of massaging her hand, she could move it again.

Bella tried to remember what she was dreaming about. But already, her dream was a myriad of jumbled fragments and dark colors. It was like trying to see something with dark black spots covering the majority of her vision. All she could remember was that in her dream, there was a very big creature, probably a bear and it was all black. She was holding a slim hand in her own and they were running away from the creature.

The creature had pounced upon her and easily caught her and then held the other person in its jaws before biting their head off. That was when she woke up.

Bella groaned and then turned fully towards her left. A slim figure was sitting on the rocking chair, slowly rocking it. The red-haired figure had all of its attention on her. Bella heart rate once again began to accelerate when she noticed that it was the beautiful vampire she was currently sharing a love-hate relationship with.

"It's you." Bella sighed and then rubbed her face. She decided to forgo the pleasantries. They were most likely to be ignored. "May I ask what you are doing here or are you just going to sit without speaking anything?" Bella asked and the vampire said nothing. She rarely said anything herself without prompting.

Bella sighed once more and then shook her head. She decided to speak herself. If she spoke and gave the vampire an opening, maybe she would also speak then. "You know, you are not the only one who has been in my room watching me as I slept. Edward had this habit of watching me sleep. Earlier, I did not think anything about it, but now it just feels creepy, you know."

Victoria just kept on looking at her emotionlessly. Bella wanted nothing more than to call the vampire out on it, but she did not. The red-haired vampire had this incessant habit of snapping every time Bella did something to antagonize her.

So, this time, Bella just kept on looking at her expectantly, her eyebrows raised. Victoria however, did not utter a single word. Evan after five minutes, when the vampire had not said a single thing, Bella sighed and laid down on her bed with her back towards Victoria.

Bella almost jumped back in reflex, when she heard the soft voice in the air, "I don't blame James. I can't blame him."

Bella slowly turned towards Victoria, still lying on her bed, "What?" She was confused. She had no idea what the vampire could be talking about.

"You said in the hospital that I should blame James for what he did to me, well I don't." Victoria said in a hard voice, but there was some vulnerability in her tone, something odd which she could not comprehend. Victoria almost sounded sad, but she didn't?

"What are you…?" Bella began to say but then she remembered what Victoria was talking about.

It was about the last time she had had a conversation with the vampire and told her that she could blame James for going after her and causing her pain by getting killed.

Victoria got up from the rocking chair but did not come closer to Bella.

"I don't blame him." She said vehemently. "I blame that pathetic excuse of a vampire you had as a boyfriend and his family who killed him." She spat the words out in anger.

Bella had just woken up from a nightmare and she really was not in the mood for this. She wanted to point out that it was all James' fault and had he not decided to hunt her, he would be still alive. But she did not say so. She did not have a death wish, not anymore.

"Okay," She pointed out softly, "But I was not the one to make him hunt me."

"That does not matter." Victoria's voice was ice cold. "All that matters now is he's gone and I don't have anyone, while on the other hand, you still have your vampire waiting to come back to you."

Bella felt like she was punched in her gut. Edward was not in the picture. Not anymore, to come back to her. If he were, he would have never left in the first place. Bella was getting tired of Victoria pointing out that to her repeatedly.

Bella turned towards the vampire with every intention of giving her a piece of her mind. Who was she to tell her that Edward was still waiting to come back and take her? Victoria was not the only one who had lost everything in her life, Bella too had. Victoria's pain might be bigger than hers, but for Bella, everything had ended before things could even begin properly.

She did not expect Victoria to sympathize with her or even do anything of that sort, but at least Victoria could understand that she was going through the same kind of pain as the vampire herself.

But, the moment she turned to look at the vampire, her retort died on her tongue. The defensive stance Victoria was standing in spoke volumes about how the vampire was feeling. She was standing with her legs apart a little, her hands were encasing her protectively and the facial expression could only be turned as plain broken.

Bella knew what it was- denial. Victoria was only acting like to save herself the pain of admitting the truth. The vampire had not yet come to terms with what had happened. By putting all the blame on her and the Cullens, Victoria was hoping to alleviate some of her pain.

It was the defense mechanism of Victoria, just like Bella. While the said person herself stopped feeling anything and was in a constant state of catatonia, the vampire was trying to put the blame on the rest of the world.

Bella slowly got up from her bed and moved towards the vampire. Victoria did not show any sign of moving away. Bella doubted that the vampire was even aware that she was moving towards her. Bella slowly walked up to Victoria and slowly touched her shoulder. Victoria flinched as if burned and jerked back in surprise.

"Look, Victoria." Bella began softly, "I know what you are doing."

Victoria just gave her a look that spoke volumes about Bella not being able to understand anything.

Bella decided to go a little further and softly grasped Victoria's hands. "Come, sit with me."

She softly pulled the vampire towards the bed and the vampire let herself be pulled. It was really strange. It seemed like Victoria had lost every bit of energy within her.

When they both were sitting on the bed, Victoria spoke, "You have no idea what I am going through."

Bella did not say anything for the first few moments, "I never said I did. But I do know what you are doing though."

"What?" Victoria practically spat in a venomous tone at Bella.

"You are in denial." Bella said without any hesitation. "You are still reeling from what happened to you regarding with James. That is why you are acting like this."

Victoria said nothing, just kept on looking at her without any expression on her face. Bella gently laced their fingers together softly squeezing the vampire's hand.

"Look," Bella said when she believed that Victoria would not say anything, "I know how it feels like to lose somebody you love with all your heart. I may not understand centuries of love, but I do know that it really hurts when somebody you love is gone forever."

Bella pulled Victoria's hand in her lap tightly gripping it in both of her own.

"And it okay to be sad or angry at the world for everything that had been done to you, but someday, you've gotta let it go." Bella said empathetically while running soft circles on the back of Victoria's hand, "If you let that sadness and heartbreak reap inside your heart then it will consume the very you."

Victoria looked at Bella with hateful eyes, "Did that boyfriend of yours not tell you that our heart is dead? That we do not change?"

"He did," Bella confirmed, "And for a moment I even believed him, though not anymore. We all have heart somewhere. Even you. Beneath that dead organ, you too have a heart and you can love."

Victoria looked down to her chest as if she could not find the notion that she had a heart anything other than preposterous.

"Tell me," Bella asked softly, "Did you love James?"

Victoria's face shone with something, Bella was not sure what, but she could several emotions pass on her face within that small time, heartbreak, pain, sadness, anger, rage, hate and settled on an anguished one. A moment later, Victoria spoke in a whispery voice, "Yes, I did."

"Then you have a heart, Victoria." Bella said nodding, "Anybody who can love is bound to have a heart."

Victoria turned away, unable to maintain eye contact with the girl.

"Look," Bella said once again before Victoria could speak, "It's alright to blame everybody else for a moment, but it does not change the fact that it was James who decided to get himself killed. You can blame him, be angry at him but that does not mean that you never loved him."

Victoria growled loudly at Bella and before the girl could blink, Bella found herself dangling with her legs a foot up the floor by the wall. Victoria had pinned hers to the wall, holding her by her neck, but this time, she was not choking her.

"I should kill you for saying that word." The vampire snarled at Bella. Her eyes were dark, soulless and there was no trace of any emotion in them whatsoever.

"Then you should." Bella said calmly, "But you won't. Because you don't want to." Bella was confident about that. "You came here about a month later since that day in the hospital. You were waiting for all that time because you were in denial, you still are."

Bella did not let Victoria speak and continued, "You still wanted to give me an answer to that question because you know that I was right, because you know that it was all James' fault and you also know that it has rattled you to your core."

Victoria still did not say anything. She just kept on holding Bella with her neck and looking at her with some indescribable emotion in her eyes.

Bella continued her speech, "You know why you came here tonight Victoria? Because you wanted a closure. And I will give it to you. You have always loved James and you will keep on loving him, but one day, you will have to move on with it. One day, you have to forget everything like a distant memory and start anew."

Victoria's grip tightened on Bella's neck, but she was gone too far to stop now, "I have always loved Edward and a small part of me will love him forever, but sometimes you have to let bygones be bygones. Love James, remember him, cherish his memories, but don't let that grief consume you."

Once again, Victoria's grip tightened and Bella started having a little trouble breathing, "Go ahead, Victoria. Kill me if you must, but you have to move on with your life. It's time that you let it go. He's gone and killing me won't bring him back. Though if you must, then kill me, but let it go."

A weird sound came out of Victoria's mouth, which was hauntingly akin to a sob. Her eyes were sparkling with unshed tears that would never fall down. Bella put her right hand on Victoria's cheek and caressed it, noticing it was soft, softer than Edward's. "Edward told me that you people cannot change but I don't believe in it. If you believe in it, then you will never change, but if you want to, you can. You can put this all behind of you and get to live once again. My life might be over, but don't let that become your end."

Bella closed her eyes after that believing that her neck would be snapped. But there was a sound of a choked sob and she jerked violently and then suddenly it was over. When she opened her eyes, she was sitting on her bed, with the swinging window telling the tale that Victoria was long gone, once again unable to do what she said she'd always wanted to do.

Somehow that small gesture told her that there was far more to Victoria than met the eyes and a small hope began to bud in her heart that maybe after all these times, Victoria cared about her too.

 **ooo**

The very next day, Bella once again decided to go pay Victoria a visit. There were obviously some missing links here, she acknowledged. First of all, Victoria stalked her for days and then suddenly stopped all forms of communication only to come back again last night to prove her point.

Well, it was more like assuaging her feelings. Bella knew things for what they were, but there was something more, something far deeper than she could understand. So, she decided to go see Victoria for herself.

It was obvious that Victoria would have heard the roar of her truck coming from miles away, but what surprised her was Victoria sitting on a couch in the front room with a glass filled with red liquid, from which she was taking small sips. Bella could have sworn it was red wine, only if she was not sure what it was.

It was clear as day that Victoria was waiting for her.

"Hi." Bella decided to make herself comfortable in the room. After all, it was not Victoria's house.

The vampire gave her a big feral grin and nodded her head in acknowledgement. It surprised Bella. It was more than she had ever received in the first minute of their interaction.

"How are you today?" Bella asked politely.

"I am fine Miss Swan, thank you very much." Victoria replied in the same polite tone, which confused Bella as she had not really expected a reply from the vampire's side.

"Where did you even get that?" Bella asked pointing towards the glass Victoria was holding in her hand. She was really curious about that. She had not heard Charlie mentioning about any serial murders in any nearby town.

"Just something I stole from some hospital a few towns away." Victoria replied casually.

"You stole?" Bella asked with raised eyebrows.

"You really are one strange woman Miss Swan," Victoria chuckled, "You find stealing offending but not what I am stealing."

"Well, from what I have gathered, no humans were murdered for your diet, so I cannot say that I am too bothered by it." Bella shrugged.

"What if they were?" Victoria raised her eyebrows challengingly.

Bella was startled for a moment and then she shrugged, "I don't know." She said simply.

"Doesn't it bother you that people are being killed Miss Swan?" Victoria was confused by Bella's statement.

"Well, people die all the time. If you don't kill them, somebody else might." Bella once again shrugged, "Or they even might kill each other, or die due to some accident or disease."

She paused for a moment to gather her thoughts, "I know it sounds really bad when I say like this, but you know, it is less bothering to me when people you don't know die. It could be anybody. Though, I would be hurt if it were somebody closer to me."

"Be assured Miss Swan, no humans were harmed in that." Victoria said looking at her, studying her carefully.

"Well, I was just saying." Bella tried to clear her point.

"Worry not Miss Swan. I was also just saying." Victoria shrugged. "To be honest, I wouldn't know what you are talking about though, I have not been a human in a long time."

Bella looked at the vampire for a long time, pondering something. Victoria noticed this and cleared her throat, "Ask Miss Swan, what you want to ask."

Bella looked embarrassed, "I was just wondering… you know how old you are."

Victoria laughed in a bell like voice, "Well, I think that it was about the end of fifteenth century when I was turned."

Bella's eyes bugged out of her socket. She almost jumped up, "Holy… you are more than five hundred years old."

"I guess I am," Victoria shrugged, "Though, we did not keep track of time."

Before Bella could ask anything, Victoria downed the content of the glass in a single gulp and then stood up. "It's a nice day out. We should not stay here. Let's go out."

Bella looked at the vampire squinting her eyes. Her voice was almost flirtatious. What was going on, last night Victoria was acting so sad and gloomy and today she was so chipper?

When Bella did not get up, Victoria offered her hand out, "Come on, let's go."

This time, Bella took the hand and let herself be pulled up, "Where do you want to go?"

"Well, there is one small hill a few miles away from here I found out a few weeks ago." Victoria gave a wide grin, "Let's go there."

"How are we going to go there?" Bella asked.

"We are taking your truck of course, unless you want to walk there the whole way." Victoria gave her a lopsided grin.

"Or you could carry me there." Bella said innocently. She knew she was flirting with danger, but she could not resist making that point for once.

To her surprise, Victoria laughed loudly, "Very funny Miss Swan. Now let's go." She said in an amused voice and then moved towards Bella's truck and opened the passenger gate and went inside.

Bella kept on looking at her for a few moments before she willed herself to go into her truck.

Most of the ride passed with Victoria pointing out the direction to her and making some small talks and telling her about things they could see in the journey. It was the most Bella had ever heard Victoria talking.

A few miles as it turned out were more than twelve. For a moment Bella wondered if Victoria was leading her to her death but then she rejected the notion. The vampire had had too many opportunities to kill her, which she did not take advantage of, so why would she just start killing her now?

Bella parked her truck at the base of the hill and started following Victoria. For a few minutes Victoria said nothing, but after a while when Bella began to pant while walking, she pointed that out in an amused tone, "My, my! I had no idea that you are so fragile, Miss Swan! Just what do you do? Lounge around your house all day?"

"Well, it's not my fault," Bella huffed, "That we have not got all strong and powerful bodies like you."

Victoria ignored her comment, "You should really work out more Miss Swan. Running will make the hunt more entertaining."

"Hunting?" Bella asked wiping her eyebrow.

"Yes, when you are being hunted," Victoria said casually, as if discussing the weather, "We vampires are hunters. We don't like it if the prey just falls into our laps."

"Very funny." Bella deadpanned and Victoria just laughed from front.

Victoria continued the journey with Bella following her behind, her breath getting more labored with each step, "Victoria!" She croaked, "I can't move any further."

The vampire stopped moving, "Well, why didn't you say so?" Victoria looked at her curiously and motioned Bella to sit down by the tree. Bella slowly trudged towards the tree and slumped down heavily on the ground, without caring that she was getting dirt all over her clothes.

"I need water." She croaked.

"I don't have any water." Victoria replied.

"Well, why did you not pack me some water if you were just gonna make me walk like this?" Bella snapped irritably. There was some look of rage in Victoria's eyes that vanished as soon as it had appeared making Bella think if she had imagined it.

"I don't need water, I have no use of water. Why would I care about that?" Victoria asked in a simple voice.

Bella huffed but said nothing. After about fifteen minutes when Bella did not feel like dying anymore, they began their trek up the hill.

The moss-covered path that led them up the hill was full of plants and fallen branches making it difficult to walk and Bella almost tripped a couple of times. Had it not been for Victoria and her immensely powerful sense of tracking, Bella would start fearing that she was lost.

Forks was overall a green city, but the amount of plant life here was unimaginable. The view around was beautiful and there were occasional glances of small animals with birds and spiders slinking around in the trees. Trust Victoria to find something so beautiful yet so unexplored. If Bella was correct, it looked like nobody had ever been here.

"Well I wanted to ask," Bella began conversationally. "How come I never heard about people being killed in Forks or around it?"

"It's because I've not been killing a lot of people lately." Victoria replied honestly.

"Why not?" Bella asked confused, "Surely, you can find a number of ways to kill people without anybody noticing you?"

"Well, there are things more dangerous than local police authorities that I have to hide from." Victoria said in a detached tone. "Things you have no idea about."

"Like what?" Bella pressed on.

"Volturi." Victoria replied in a single word.

"Volturi?" Bella asked confused.

Victoria gave a humorless chuckle, "There are a lot of things about our world you don't know of Miss Swan." Victoria said shaking her head, "Things you should not have fallen in between of." She did not elaborate anymore.

After a few minutes of walking, Bella asked once more, "How much do we have to go?"

"Just a little more, Miss Swan." Victoria said patiently, "Though, I would not expect an impatient person like you to know the meaning of that word."

Bella once again huffed but said nothing.

Sometime later, a thought struck Bella's mind which she decided to ask. "If you people can survive on donated blood, why do you hunt humans then? You can just have that blood and live at a single place for a long time."

Victoria shook her head amusedly, "Yes, we can have that blood, but that does not imply in the very least that we want to have it."

"Why?" Bella was confused.

"Tell me, Miss Swan," Victoria asked, "Do you like your pizza frozen and stale or warm and nice?"

"What are you talking about?" Bella was still confused.

Victoria explained, "Blood, like most human foods is only enjoyable for us when it is fresh and warm. Of course, you can have refrigerated blood, but it is not like having it directly out of the source. That is why most of the vampires forgo having donated blood. Also, we are natural hunters. You cannot expect a lion to stop hunting and start eating dead animals. We are like that, except more deadly."

"Surely you can reheat the blood from the bags?" Bella asked pondering loudly.

Victoria gave a bell like laughter, "Miss Swan, blood coagulates when heated. It is inedible or undrinkable for us." She then said after a moment, "You can compare it to eating melted rubber."

"Ew, gross." Bella looked disgusted.

After ten minutes of walking, they burst through the trees in the clearing where the sun was shining brightly.

Bella's breath got stuck in her throat when she saw the beauty all around her. There were kind of flowers she had never seen in her life before and the meadow was surrounded by tall trees from all sides and there were long grasses all over the meadow. Bella just wanted to fall asleep in there. There was also a small pond over at the right side filled with clear blue water, reflecting the light off the sun.

She then turned back to look at Victoria who was looking at her with amusement all over her face. However, it was not Victoria's facial expression Bella was focusing on. It was Victoria herself. The vampire was exuding pure beauty and radiance. She was the most glowing vampire Bella had ever seen and the flowing mane of red hair added to the beauty of the vampire.

Victoria was looking totally wild, a predator by all means and Bella could swear that she was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. If the vampire was to kill her right now, she would gladly die and would not even regret it.

 _Yep, totally gay_ , Bella's mind said.

Bella could not help but move closer to the vampire, "You're beautiful." She said.

"You have seen nothing yet, Miss Swan," Victoria murmured seductively.

"No, that's not true." Bella said, "You are the most beautiful thing I've ever seen in my life."

Victoria grinned wide, "Would you like to see more?" She asked.

"What?" Bella asked confused. But before she could comprehend anything, Victoria began to strip.

Bella could not do anything but watch and Victoria was down to her underwear.

She found out that she could not even gulp. If she were honest, the look on her face must be priceless.

Victoria removed the last piece of clothing and stood in front of Bella completely bare. The said girl started feeling clammy.

Bella could clearly look at the naked beauty in front of her. She was look everything clearly, but still she could not. The light radiating off of the vampire was too bright that she could not focus at one point without getting blinded. Moreover, she was more concerned with the ethereal beauty of the woman standing in front of her, not with her nakedness.

Bella could not bring herself to look away. She even forgot to breathe. If she thought that Victoria was the most beautiful vampire she had ever seen, without clothes she was downright gorgeous. Every inch of her skin was reflecting the sunlight and it was glowing beautifully. It was not like with the Cullens where it felt like thousands of tiny little diamonds were embedded in their skins.

In Victoria's case, it felt like the glow was being emitted from her body. It was as if the glow was the extension of her skin.

Bella unconsciously licked lips and her gazed traveled downwards and she blushed heavily. It was the first time in her life, seeing anybody other than herself in such a stare of bareness and the more she looked, the more she wanted to look.

Bella was not aware that she had moved too closer to the vampire and was about to touch her. The moment Bella raised her hand; Victoria brushed it aside.

"Come on now, Miss Swan; let's take a dip in the pond." Victoria murmured seductively.

"What?" Bella could not believe her ears.

"I said, let's bathe. Together." Victoria had a sly grin on her face. "Take off your clothes and let's have some fun."

Bella was speechless. She did not know what to say.

"No, I am fine." She said awkwardly, trying to keep her eyes focused on Victoria's face and not roaming down her body.

Victoria moved closer so that she was standing in Bella's proximity. "Come on, it will be fun." She muttered flirtatiously.

Bella could swear, she was sweating and she felt hot. The cunning glint in the redhead vampire's eyes gave her a clear enough picture that Victoria was aware of what was going on with her body.

"I am okay, I don't have extra clothes." Bella said stepping back but the vampire was instantly back in her personal space.

"Come on," Victoria said with a huge grin and took Bella by her hand to the end of the pond, "You can take all your clothes off, just like me. That way, they won't get wet."

Bella could not do anything except get dragged. However, when they reached the end of the pond, Victoria released her hand and took a step away from her. Bella breathed in relief.

"Come on, let's go." Victoria turned back giving Bella a view of her nice backside and the brunette blushed, causing her heartbeat to increase.

"I'm fine." Bella muttered meekly. She had no courage to go into the water. Moreover, she could not trust herself not to do something like kiss the vampire if they were both in.

"You sure?" Victoria asked turning just slightly and Bella had to fight herself not to drag her eyes down.

"Yeah, you go." She said gulping and the vampire jumped into the pond.

Victoria went into the water and then came back up, sweeping her hair back. The red mane of hair was now darker and sticking to her back, causing tiny rivulets of water to cascade down her naked back.

Bella turned her head away from the scene, even though she had to fight her to do so. It was like a train wreck- she couldn't not watch it. However, she had to remind herself that Victoria was just playing with her. She did not actually want her. If she let herself fall more for the vampire, it would only end in a heartbreak. She had to stay away from those feelings.

A few minutes passed with Bella thinking about the vampire and introspecting about where she stood with the feral beauty that was now bathing in the pond. She had no idea.

Bella's reverie was broken when she heard the sound of a throat being cleared. She looked up and saw the naked beauty just in front of her looking at her with a dark glint in her eyes. When her eyes unwittingly started to trail down the vampire's front, she closed her eyes and turned her head away. However, she knew that there was more than just arousal in her eyes. She wanted Victoria. But she wanted more than her body.

"Enough gawking, Miss Swan, now let me get dressed." Victoria said flirtatiously and used her speed to put her clothes on. Bella found that that she was very disappointed to see Victoria all attired. She stood up and came closer to Victoria. Earlier, the redhead was standing in her personal space. This time, she initiated the move.

"How come you shine brighter than the Cullens and have a glow that looks like your body part?" Bella was still breathless.

"Well, we all are different in that matter." Victoria shrugged, "All vampires have different kind of glamour."

"You're beautiful." Bella said in a hoarse voice and softly touched Victoria's cheeks.

"What are you doing Miss Swan?" Victoria asked confused when Bella began tracing soft circles on her cheeks. There was something horrifyingly similar to panic and fear in her eyes.

"Worshiping you. Admiring you." Bella said in a dazed voice.

"Don't." Victoria said seriously. This was the first time that day she had taken such a tone.

"Why?" Bella asked confused and a little hurt.

"Just don't." Victoria said closing her eyes and taking a step back to remove herself from the range of Bella's proximity.

"Well, I see nothing wrong in admiring beauty." Bella said softly and moved closer to Victoria once more.

"Let it go, Miss Swan." Victoria's voice had hardened. "You are not thinking this about me, you are having all those thoughts about a vampire. It's not safe for you to associate with somebody like me."

"You?" Bella chuckled, "You are as harmful as a teddy bear."

Victoria growled loudly and Bella found herself being snatched with her right hand and suddenly, she was thrown on Victoria's back. Then the vampire began running at her top speed.

Bella could not keep her eyes closed even with the onslaught of wind on her face. The branches and pointy shrubs were moving past her face at such a rapid pace that Bella was fearing for her life.

"I am not some toy, Miss Swan." Bella heard clearly even with the wind howling in her ears. And then she was thrown hundreds of feet above in the air. The twisting and twirling in the air instantly made her sick. She screamed loudly.

"I am a hunter," Victoria caught her before she could touch the ground.

"I am a predator." Victoria said and put Bella on the ground who swayed dangerously. The vampire was moving all around her in tight circles so fast that Bella could only hear the whooshing of the wind.

"You are my prey." The vampire said and Bella was once again moving at rapid speed.

"I can kill you. Nowhere you go, no matter what you do, you cannot escape me." Victoria threw her dangerously close to the ground, but at the last moment, picked her up.

"Get it through that brain of yours, I am not someone who is to be trifled with." She said and Bella found herself being moved in circles that instantly made her stomach upset.

"I am not some weak creature." Bella was once again put on Victoria's back and was rushed away.

"I am a vampire." Victoria said in a dangerous voice and put Bella down on the ground. The moment she did so, Bella dived into the bushes, emptying the contents of her stomach.

After a minute, when her stomach was empty, Bella looked at Victoria with accusing eyes, "Why did you do that?" She still felt queasy.

"Don't forget who I am and who you are Miss Swan." Victoria's voice had lost all of her earlier warmth. "It would not be wise of you to meddle in matters out of your control."

But before Bella could say anything, Victoria pointed towards the truck, "Get in your vehicle. I am driving." Her voice challenged Bella to dare defy her.

Bella was not in the mood of doing anything of that matter and she still felt sick to drive home, so she quietly gave the vampire her keys and got in the passenger seat.

Victoria drove Bella to her home, the entire journey passed in silence. When she cut the engine off, Bella had only a moment to blink before the vampire was out of her vehicle, disappeared in the setting sun.

 **ooo**

Bella laid awake in her bed thinking about the things that had happened that day before. First of all, Victoria was actually civil towards her and then talked to her without any prompting, then she had joked with her, laughed and flirted with her as if they were some old friends, not enemies.

Then, Victoria had even led her for trekking and took her to the top of the hill. She was easygoing, not as uptight and snarky and downright volatile. The vampire was more or less friendly towards her.

Bella blushed every time she thought about it, but Victoria had even stripped for her to show off her body. She was not sure what had prompted the vampire to garner this response from her. But, boy, was Victoria beautiful! It had all been going right until that moment when something happened.

Bella was not sure what happened and how that made the vampire go complete one-eighty. If Bella could recall correctly, Victoria was calm and cool until Bella began admiring her beauty. What had happened in that moment that caused the vampire to behave like this?

Was it touching the vampire or actually telling the vampire that she was beautiful? Surely, she must have had a lot of people telling her that she was beautiful, so what was so special about Bella telling her that she gorgeous?

Gosh, it was all so confusing. Why was Victoria behaving like that? What was happening with her? One moment she was calm and cool and the next moment she was feisty and ready to attack? The vampire was acting more moodily than a pregnant woman or was it something different?

Was Victoria bipolar? Could vampires be bipolar? On one hand, it did not seem like that. Whatever that happened to vampires whenever they transformed, it made them perfect. But, on the other hand, they still were the same person inside, so it was possible that they retained some of their imperfections.

Bella once again began thinking about how Victoria showed her that she was more powerful and formidable than any other being she had even met. Man, was it really necessary that way? Bella's head was still heavy even after taking a couple of medicines. Though, she had to admit that Victoria was more graceful than she had imagined any vampire to be. Bringing her closer to the doors of death and then snatching her back up.

Suddenly, something struck Bella's mind that made her pause for a moment. Victoria did not let any harm came to her. Sure, was went overboard in her show of power, but she was careful with what she did.

Victoria had no reason to let her come back from the hill or even to drive her back home. She could have easily left her at the top of hill or even near her truck. But she had chosen all the way to drive her home. Why?

While she was thinking, Bella did not hear the sound of her window opening quietly and she certainly did not hear the whooshing of the wind accompanying it. Though, a few moments later when her gaze went towards the chair, she could not help screaming like a little girl. The vampire was beside her in a blink of an eye, stopping the sound coming out of her mouth.

Bella gazed into the dark, soulless eyes of the vampire and her heart started beating loudly. Though, she was not sure for what reason it was doing so.

The vampire opened her mouth and showed her glistening, venom coated teeth to the woman lying below her.

"Ah, ah, ah, Miss Swan. We wouldn't want you risk waking your father up, do we?" Victoria asked in a dangerous tone and Bella could only shake her head in negative.

This time, Victoria was not giving her happy-go-lucky vibe, rather she was full of dangerous demeanor, something which was oozing darkness and fear. Bella somehow knew that this Victoria was not here to chitchat with her, she was here for something primal, something fearful.

Bella wanted to ask why she was here. But Victoria's hand was still covering her mouth and not a sound could escape her mouth. The vampire now came over the bed and straddled her, putting both of her knees on each side of Bella's hips. She bent forward until she was looking in the eyes of the girl below her.

Victoria softly drew one finger from her temple to her chin, tracing the smooth features of her skin.

"So soft and so tantalizing." The vampire said in a monologue. "I wonder why I had waited for this for so long."

Victoria then used her thumb to trace the outlines of Bella's lips. The girl could not help but look at the woman above her in fear. The vampire softly caressed her cheeks. "So soft. Certainly, you have much softer skin than I expected it to be."

Victoria then lowered her forehead until it was touching the girl's. Their noses were brushing each other and their lips were millimeters apart from each other. "I wonder why I waited for this for so long."

Bella could feel her heart begin to race in her chest, with the closeness of the vampire, "So pure, yet so enticing." The vampire swiped her tongue, licking Bella's lips.

The vampire grinned dangerously above her. "Oh, Miss Swan, I had thought that your vampire boyfriend must have tainted your lips by now. But I could not be more wrong."

Victoria laughed for a moment and then suddenly straightened, but she did not release Bella from her grip.

"You are a foolish girl Miss Swan," Victoria tutted, "So blatantly flirting with danger without any regard for your safety."

The wild glint was back in Victoria's eyes. "I showed you how I looked without my clothes on, now let me see you."

The redhead released Bella's mouth, but Bella was not foolish enough to let any sound come out of her mouth. Victoria slowly unbuttoned the top button of her nightshirt and proceeded with a couple more.

The vampire moved the shirt aside until her gaze went over to where Bella's heart was. The vampire's looked at her, pondering for a moment.

"On a second note, I have something more interesting in my mind." Victoria said and rested her hand directly over Bella's chest. Bella closer her eyes. It was not long before Bella felt the cool breath of Victoria directly over her skin.

Without any forewarning, Bella felt sharp needles pricking over her skin. The pain doubled in an instant and Bella was left with feeling Victoria happily sucking the blood out of her, draining her dry.

Bella could fell the dizziness ensnaring her in her grasp and the darkness beginning to blotch her vision. Before long, Bella felt her vision darken and then she was out like a light.

 **ooooooo**


	5. In The Twilight Zone

**Chapter 5:**

 **In The Twilight Zone**

The first thing that Bella became aware of was a splitting headache. It felt like someone had taken a jackhammer to her head and played baseball with her brain. The pain was sharp, acute and mainly settled in the front of her head and in her temples.

When she opened her eyes, big, dark patches blotched her vision. She rubbed her eyes but it only helped her headache grow. She tried to move her tongue inside her mouth, and it felt like something had died there. Her mouth was rough and coarse and it hurt.

Bella tried to remove the sheet covering her body and the effort made her feel like she was wrestling a bull. Even that little bit of exertion took a toll on her and she felt darkness swim in her vision once more.

After a few minutes, when she could see clearly, Bella sat up on her bed. She had moved too fast and felt dizzy. She blacked out for a moment and braced her hands on either side of her, trying not to fall.

"What happened?" She croaked and a dull pain flared in her throat. What was happening to her? Her whole body ached in places and she felt sore and tired. It was as if she had the hangover of the century, only she had never had alcohol in her life.

Moreover, she could not recall what happened the previous night for her to suddenly be so tired! She searched her mind for the memories of the previous night, but she was drawing a blank.

Bella turned to her right and stared in amazement at the large array on the table by her bed. Someone had left a large plate containing an assortment of fruits: apples, oranges, a slice of watermelon, almonds, dates and a big bunch of grapes. There was also a big glass of milk and a glass of a thick, red liquid that looked like blood. Bella's stomach turned a bit at the sight.

Bella noticed a note sticking out from underneath the glass of milk next to the plate of fruit, and she gingerly slid the paper out from under the glass to read it. "You'll need it Miss Swan." It was a simple sentence, the words formed by a beautiful, flowing calligraphy, clearly written by an elegant, feminine hand.

Just then, everything started coming back to Bella. Victoria coming to her house, straddling her, showing her pointed teeth and slowly undressing her before piercing her chest with her fangs. Bella's heart started beating faster in her chest. Had something happened?

Bella slowly removed the cover from her body and was relieved to know that she was still dressed. Although her body was sore and ached at all places, she did not think that Victoria had actually done that. The exhaustion could be the result of the vampire taking too much of her blood.

However, if Victoria had drunk from her, how was she still alive? Had the vampire actually let her go without draining her dry? How was that even possible? But most importantly, why? Why did Victoria decide not to kill her? Surely, it must have caused the vampire too much pain to let go of her! Why was Victoria hell bent on causing her own suffering in order to keep Bella alive? What did it mean for them?

Bella's stomach rumbled and she decided to let all the questions wait and take advantage of the food that Victoria had so thoughtfully left for her.

She slowly picked the apple and bit into it. It was juicy and sweet. Within no time at all, the apple was gone. Bella could not control herself anymore and hungrily ate the rest of the food. She had not realized she was hungry enough to eat it all.

She then picked up the glass of milk and drank it all in several big gulps. The only thing now remaining on her table was the glass of red liquid. Did Victoria actually expect her to drink blood? Bella wrinkled her nose in disgust.

She gingerly took the glass in her hands and sniffed. It had no definitive scent, but maybe her sense of smell was off. Closing her eyes, Bella took a small, hesitant sip. It tasted disgusting, but she was relieved to discover that it was not actually blood. It was just beetroot juice. She pinched her nose and gulped the juice down.

After she had finished everything, Bella laid back on her bed rubbing her stomach. She could feel her strength return to her in small amount. However, she knew that it would take her body a long time to replenish the blood it had lost.

Her mind began drifting to Victoria and what was happening to the vampire and what she was doing to her. Why was she acting like this? First angry, then giddy and flirtatious and then seductive, then sadistic and then plain murderous? What was she suffering from?

However, before Bella could contemplate on this matter anymore, she felt her eyelids drooping and she promptly fell back into the realm of sleep.

 **ooo**

The second time Bella woke up, it was noon. She was still feeling the effects of blood loss, her head ached and there was a weakness in her body that made her to rest in bed forever. However, she willed herself to get out of her bed and at least take a look at herself.

She slowly trudged into the bathroom and looked at her figure in the mirror. Her cheeks were pale and her eyes were tired and had dark circles underneath them. She felt weakness overtaking her when she stood for too long checking her reflection in the mirror. Bella gripped the sink hard to stop herself from falling down. Unfortunately, that little effort proved too much, she succumbed to another round of dizziness, and she sank to the ground, placing her head between her knees.

When she felt like she had recovered and would not keel over from the dizziness spell, Bella slowly got up and splashed her face with cool water. It was a welcome relief from the hotness she was feeling. She rinsed her mouth out without going through the tedious procedure of brushing her teeth and slowly dragged herself back to her room.

When she was once again sitting on her bed, her gaze went to her table again, amazed and shocked that all of the food she had eaten earlier had been replaced already. Wow, Victoria really was concerned about her, Bella mused. She once again ate the food that had been left for her, at a slower pace than before, and felt better when she did.

Bella wondered if it was normal. She never knew that loss of blood could make your appetite skyrocket. As far as she knew, she should be feeling different than that. Unfortunately, she had no idea of how to find about that stuff. Or was it some side effect of the vampire venom in her system?

Suddenly Bella recalled Victoria biting her. She pulled her shirt down and saw two small puncture wounds just above her breast, exactly where her heart was. Well, that was an odd place for a vampire to bite somebody! What was Victoria trying to prove? That she owned her heart too? Bella scoffed, that was preposterous. But even in that moment, Bella could not help wonder that maybe it was true.

Bella touched the wound and winced in pain. Well, what was she expecting? Of course, it would hurt!

Bella once again laid back on her bed and started thinking about everything that had happened in the last forty-eight hours. It was one heck of a roller-coaster ride. She had several questions that she could not wait to get the answer to. Why had Victoria bitten her after all this time, when she said that she could kill her without drinking from her? Why did the vampire then let go of her and how? What was going through the vampire's mind in that instant?

However, one more important thing was that Victoria was sending her mixed signals. What were the vampire's intentions? Did she want her to die? Or did she want something different? Bella had no idea. All those times, Bella was completely at Victoria's mercy. The vampire could have done any number of things to her, killed her, taken advantage of her or maybe forced her to do something.

But no! What the vampire did was to become a looming presence in her life, stalking her, acting like a nuisance, threatening her and making suggestive gestures whilst doing nothing. Yes, she had given her the scare of a lifetime and drank her blood, but now, she was taking care of her. What was she to make of all that?

Bella cursed loudly, not usually the one for profanities. Damn that stupid, vengeful, dangerous, beautiful vampire for making Bella love her.

Love? Bella was suddenly startled by where her thoughts had taken her. She realized that she loved Victoria. Well, she was not quite in love with her, but yes, she did love her. Bella realized that if she were to continue on this path, it would not be long before she totally was in love with Victoria.

Man, she was in for one hell of a heartbreak!

Bella decided to directly confront the source of her current predicament. She took her phone out and scrolled to Victoria's name on the list. She sat there for a long moment with her finger hovering over the call button. What was she to say to the redhead?

 _Well Victoria, will you at least tell me if you want to kill me or love me, because I am already falling in love with you and would like to either die by your hand or have the chance to be loved by you._ Bella scoffed. Yeah, like that would go over really well with the vampire. She stared at Victoria's name in her phone for a long time and then pressed the call button before she lost the courage to do so.

The ring tone sounded for a long time before the call went to voice mail. Bella dialed the number once more and again the vampire did not pick the call. On her fifth try, the call was rejected as soon as the phone began ringing. After that, when Bella tried the number, the phone went straight to voicemail without ringing, indicating that Victoria had turned her phone off.

Bella huffed, the nerve of that vampire. How dare she reject her call! Unfortunately, Bella was in no condition to drive over to the Cullen residence and confront the vampire about her actions.

Before long, Bella's eyes began drooping once again and she fell into a dreamless sleep.

 **ooo**

Bella did not do much that day. She only rested in her bed and thought about things whilst falling in and out of sleep a couple of times. By the time the day was over, she was feeling the full effect of the blood loss. Her head was constantly aching, her throat was raw and rough and her eyes were red.

She still felt extremely weak and she had even vomited once during the day and found blood mixed in with the vomit. She was honestly terrified but did not dare voice anything to Charlie. Who knew what trouble that would land her into?

She was glad that Charlie had gone to visit Billy after he had finished work and eaten dinner there, because she was in no condition to cook for him. She had made up some excuse about not feeling well and being unable to go to school the next day so as to not incur suspicion from him.

At the moment, Bella was lying in her bed under a thick blanket. Even with the blanket, she still felt chilled, but she could not do anything about that. She just resigned herself to spending the night shivering, curling the blanket tightly around her body.

It was not long before she heard the window slide open with a creak and the lanky vampire came inside. Bella just looked at her with cold, dull eyes and Victoria looked at her in confusion.

"What happened, Miss Swan?" The redhead asked in a voice full of genuine surprise.

"Don't you know?" Bella tried to say it sarcastically but could not muster enough bite in her words. It just came out sounding tired.

Victoria slowly walked towards her so not to frighten her and gently bent down to touch her forehead.

"You're running a fever," Victoria said to herself and then took in her pale and sunken face. "I'm sorry, Miss Swan. I should not have taken so much of your blood."

Bella gave a cynical laugh. "Oh, now you worry about it?" she then realized what had Victoria said, "That much blood? You are not ashamed that you basically assaulted me and took most of my blood?"

"As I said, Miss Swan," Victoria said softly. "I am sorry, but no, I am not sorry that I took your blood."

Well, that was strange. Victoria did not say sorry to her once before when she tried to kill her and now when Bella was in no danger of being killed by her, she says sorry!

Victoria sat there for a few minutes simply caressing Bella's face and stroking her hair and Bella let her. It was a nice gesture, until Bella began shivering and her teeth started to chatter.

Victoria was instantly alarmed. She gently touched Bella's forehead and the girl shivered even more at the touch of the vampire's cold hands.

Victoria sighed loudly. "I did not think that I would have to ever do this." She then looked at Bella with dead seriousness in her eyes. Bella just looked at her squinting her eyes, confusion evident in them.

"What is your blood type Miss Swan?" Victoria asked in a soft voice.

"Huh?" Bella was confused. What did that have to do with her being almost drained by Victoria? Did vampires have a blood type preference?

"Don't tell me that you don't know," Victoria said, rubbing her forehead.

"AB positive," Bella said, still confused.

"Are you sure?" Victoria asked in a soft voice. "I don't want to mess that up."

Bella nodded, unable to say anything else. Victoria caressed her cheek once more. "I will be back in a few minutes." She turned towards the window but turned back when Bella shivered again.

"Are you cold?" Victoria asked. Bella could only nod.

"Where do you keep extra blankets?" Victoria spoke in a gentle voice. Maybe she truly cared about Bella.

"In the cupboard down the hall," Bella said in a small voice. She still could not believe that Victoria was really here taking care of her.

Without any second's delay, Victoria left the room without making any noise and in a matter of seconds was back carrying two thick blankets. She gently draped a blanket over Bella and touched her cheek. "I'll be back. Don't die on me." She spoke in a joking manner, but there was some seriousness in her voice.

Before Bella could blink, Victoria was gone, leaving her alone in the room and it did not take long for her thoughts to start drifting towards everything that was happening.

Was this really happening or was it all a dream? Bella decided that it was either all a dream or she had died and somehow gone to heaven and everything was happening according to her fantasy. But she could not recall ever having such a vivid fantasy and it certainly did not explain why she was in so much pain. Wasn't heaven supposed to be pleasant and painless?

It took only half an hour for Victoria to return, carrying a bag with her. The vampire dumped the bag on Bella's desk, hastily shoving her computer causing it to almost fall. She pulled out a small pouch from the bag that contained something red. This time Bella knew what it was.

"I am not going to drink blood." Bella said in a disgusted voice.

Victoria gave an amused laugh, "Nobody expects you to, Miss Swan." She held the pouch up in the air, examining it closely. "I am going to transfuse this blood to you intravenously."

Bella looked horrified at that and shrank in on herself. "No."

"No?" Victoria was amused. "Are you afraid of needles?" she chuckled once. "Or do you really want to drink the blood." She sounded like she would laugh at Bella at any moment.

"I am not afraid of needles." Bella said in an offended voice. "Are you really qualified to do all of this?" She had a touch of fear in her voice.

"I have watched enough doctors do this to know what I am doing." Victoria supplied casually. She removed the framed picture of a cat Bella had on the wall and hooked the blood bag on the nail left behind. "Don't worry. You will see."

Bella would have shrieked if she had the energy to do so. "You mean to say that you have never done this?"

Victoria looked at her for a moment, "Actually, no. But I know what I am doing." She hooked the IV line to the bag and pulled out a syringe from the bag. "I had to rob this from a nearby medical store. I did not have much time or money."

Bella still looked apprehensive. "What if it does not work?"

"Well, we will find out soon enough," Victoria said. "If everything goes wrong and you are about to die then I will resort to the last option." She bared her pointed teeth at Bella who gulped.

"You really would do that?" Bella asked hesitantly.

"I do not like this anymore than you Miss Swan, but yes." The vampire said this without any doubt in her voice. "If it comes to that, I would."

Victoria put a swab of cotton on Bella's forearm and lightly applied alcohol to clean it.

"You really are confident in your abilities as a doctor, eh Victoria?" Bella asked trying to judge Victoria's honesty for the very last time.

"Yes. I am." She said without any hesitation. "How do you think I was able to let go of you without draining you dry?"

"I wonder why you latched on in the first place," Bella stated tonelessly.

Victoria did not answer. She just shrugged. She gently pushed the needle into Bella's arm and the girl winced.

"Sorry." Victoria muttered apologetically and then pushed it rest of the way in. She allowed the blood to begin draining down the IV line to remove the air from the line before rolling up the stopper to stop the flow. She connected the IV to the catheter in Bella's arm and taped it down. She removed the stopper to allow the blood to flow freely into Bella's arm.

"AB positive is the universal recipient, but I got you O negative for the first bag, which is the universal donor. If it does not affect you, then I will use that one for the next transfusion," Victoria explained. "You are really sure that that is your blood type?"

Bella nodded, trying to understand what the redhead's angle was in helping her.

"What are you doing, Victoria?" Bella asked in a tight voice.

"Giving you a blood transfusion." The vampire looked at her strangely.

"No," Bella shook her head. "Not about this." She gestured towards the blood bag and the vampire playing doctor. "I mean what are you really doing?"

Victoria gave a derisive laugh, "I don't know." She laughed once again in the same humorless tone. "I really don't know."

She made sure that the blood was flowing smoothly and that there didn't seem to be any complications before setting Bella in a comfortable position with the blankets tucked around her and pillows supporting her. She then pulled the rocking chair up beside Bella's bed and sat in it.

Bella watched the vampire for a few minutes unable to discern anything before sighing loudly. "Let me ask you a few questions," she began and the redhead looked at her with indifferent eyes.

"Okay," the vampire replied and nodded her head.

"I want you to answer truthfully," Bella said and Victoria opened her mouth to say something, but Bella cut her off. "I don't want you to explain everything, I just ask you for your honesty."

The vampire looked at her for a very long time without saying anything, but when Bella kept her gaze steady trying to convey the sincerity in her eyes, Victoria nodded, a little reluctantly.

"Do you want to kill me?" Bella asked holding her breath.

"I don't know…" Victoria said, looking a little uncomfortable.

"Please. You promised honesty." Bella begged in a gentle tone.

Victoria looked conflicted before shaking her head to herself, "I would like to think that I would kill you one day, but no, I don't want to kill you anymore."

Bella let out the breath she had no idea that she was holding. A huge weight had lifted off her shoulders. "Why?" she pressed.

"I have no idea. I don't know it myself. I just know that I can't kill you anymore." Victoria stared at Bella as she spoke.

Bella's eyes shoe with a glint that she had lost a long time ago. It was not _I won't kill you_ , rather it was _, I can't_. It might not have been what Victoria wanted to tell her, but it spoke volumes about the redhead vampire sitting beside her. Victoria cared, after all this time and after everything that had happened in the past, Victoria cared.

Bella took a few moments to think about her next question. "Did you ever want to kill me?"

Victoria's eyes narrowed and she stiffened for a moment before relaxing and saying, "Yes, Miss Swan, I did. I had this perfect death planned for you where I would torture you and kill you mercilessly. I would make you beg me for death before I would have given it to you."

Bella winced. Well, that was honest. A little too honest. She had no idea how to respond to Victoria's statement, so she wisely decided to keep quiet and think about what to ask her next.

"What you would have done after you had killed me?" Bella asked softly.

"I don't know, I hadn't planned that far," Victoria said broodingly.

Bella sighed. For someone who was supposed to have a very sharp brain and could think all kind of things at once, Victoria was uncharacteristically short-sighted.

"Would it have brought James back?" Bella asked looking at Victoria pointedly.

The vampire tensed at hearing that name, but fortunately, did not attack her. "No, it wouldn't." She spoke through clenched teeth.

"Then why try to do something that would make you feel nothing?" Bella asked. "Why do you persist on getting your vengeance when it will do you no good?"

"Because it is the only thing that I have left!" The vampire snarled. "I don't have anything left for me anymore. I would have gladly taken my revenge, had it not been for that foolish boy that left you."

"And then what Victoria?" Bella asked in a hard voice. "And then what? Would you have found somebody else to spend your life with? Would you have killed yourself? Would it bring you relief?"

"At least it would end my misery." The vampire growled with a voice full of hatred. "At least it would have given me relief from this miserable existence."

"Why don't you move on?" Bella asked. "Why don't you let go?"

"Like you did?" Victoria asked in a hard voice. "In the same miserable way you were for months? In the same way you are looking for a fling in the arms of your enemy? Like the same way you are looking for somebody to relieve you of your pain; is this what you so eloquently call moving on?"

Victoria spoke in a mocking tone, "Why don't you try and move on, Miss Swan? Why don't you let go?"

Bella took a deep breath before saying, "I already have, Victoria. I already have. As I once said, I will always love Edward, but I am not in love with him anymore. I am just in love with the idea of who he could be."

Victoria closed her eyes tightly and looked away, not saying anything. It was a long moment before suddenly clicked in her mind and Bella asked her next question.

"The first time I met you at the Cullen mansion, you told me that you would kill me painlessly. You also told me that you would not drink my blood. Was that a lie?" The hurt was evident in Bella's voice.

If Victoria noticed that Bella's tone of voice had taken a strange turn, she did not comment on it. "No. It wasn't. I would have honored that. All of my elaborate planning was foiled the moment you came to that place."

Bella couldn't help but sniffle a little. Victoria decided to honor her promise. And she could sense the honesty in her. Granted it was all about killing her and she would have died either way, but the vampire had decided to kill her painlessly, even though she had no reason to. She could have gone ahead and exacted her vengeance, but she did not. She did not.

"Why?" Bella asked in a feeble voice.

"Why what, Miss Swan?" Victoria asked her, confused.

"Why did you not kill me?" Bella questioned in the same soft voice and Victoria gripped the chair so hard that it almost cracked.

"Because I couldn't kill you." Victoria spat with venom. "I wanted to torture you, make you feel the pain that I was feeling, make you beg for death and then I would show that boy how easy it was to destroy him. But you, Miss Swan, you were already broken, almost begging for death. You were dead, you were lifeless. Everything that I had wanted to do with you was suddenly gone and I could not kill you. It would have been like euthanasia- simply helping you get rid of your pain."

"Then why didn't you release me of my pain?" Bella's voice was stronger and more forceful. "Why did you not give me that little mercy?"

"Because it didn't feel like it." Victoria snarled. "What do you think, huh? You think it was easier for me to go ahead and kill you when you would have wanted nothing more? Do you think I could have let you live?"

The vampire did not give Bella time to reply and told her, "I could have taken you, healed you and then killed you, but it would have been for nothing as your heart would not be beating for that boy anymore. Like it is now, Miss Swan."

Realizing that emotions were flying high in the air, both of them took some time to calm down and think. After a while when Bella shivered, Victoria looked at her concerned. "Are you okay?"

"M'fine." Bella mumbled trying to wrap the blanket tighter around her.

Victoria got up and draped the other blanket over her body. "It is the result of too much blood loss. A few bags of blood later, you will be fine."

Bella decided to ask the question that had been plaguing her mind for a long time now. "Why did you suddenly decide to take my blood now? Why after all this time?"

Victoria unconsciously licked her lips. "I could not control myself anymore and for that I am sorry. It was too long I had gone without hunting a person and I couldn't help myself."

"How come then you let me go? Shouldn't you have drained me dry?" Bella decided to come honest and admit that she was curious.

"Oh yes, Miss Swan, it was difficult for me. Very difficult." Victoria chuckled darkly. "But I've had centuries of practice of drinking blood. It was almost physically painful for me to let you go, but as I said, I could not control biting you, but I can control whether or not I actually let you die."

"You still did not answer my question." Bella pointed out. "Why did you let go?"

Victoria kept quiet for a moment, possibly deciding whether or not to answer. However, when she did, she spoke calmly, "I did not want to kill you. I can't."

There was it again, I can't kill you.

The redhead vampire muttered darkly, "As I said yesterday, donated blood does not taste as good as taken from the source. It is an experience I would not like to repeat everyday."

Bella could feel anger taking hold of her. There were millions of people in the state whom Victoria could hunt and it was not like killing somebody was strange for the feral vampire, but why was she hell-bent on having her blood.

When Bella spoke, her voice came out more hurt than angry. "Is that all I am to you, a blood bank?"

"What?" Victoria asked confused.

Bella's voice suddenly sounded defeated, "What are we Victoria? What I am to you, a blood bank? A means of pleasure? A guinea pig or something else?"

Victoria did not say anything, and Bella's anger flared. "Why are you doing this Victoria?" she growled out. "What do you hope to achieve by it? One moment you are dangerous and terrifying, then you turn seductive and alluring, then once again you become psychopathic and now you are so caring and kind. What exactly do you hope to achieve by it?"

"I don't hope to achieve anything by it Miss Swan," Victoria murmured in a small voice. "I am not doing this for fun. It's just who I am."

"And what am I to you?" Bella repeated.

When the vampire said nothing, Bella prodded on. "Are you in love with me?"

Victoria did a double take just by hearing Bella say that word.

"Do not assume anything so foolish, Miss Swan." She growled in a biting tone. However, it did not go unnoticed by Bella that she held a note of vulnerability in her voice.

Bella found herself smiling a bit, and pressed even further, probing at the chink in Victoria's seeming impenetrable stoic character. "Are you attracted to me?"

Victoria once again dodged the question with a non-committal answer. "If you are attracted to your food, then let's say that yes, I am attracted to you."

Bella smiled hearing Victoria not trying to deny the accusation. Granted it was not the answer she was hoping for, but nonetheless, it was a positive reply.

"Do you…" Bella began but was interrupted by the redhead.

"Enough questions, Miss Swan," the vampire said irritably. "You have a big recovery ahead of you. So please stop asking nonsense questions and sleep." Victoria scowled at her trying to bait her into a fight.

This time, however, Bella shut up with a huff. She laid back on her pillow and closed her eyes. Sometime later, she fell into a fitful sleep full of colors and moving red eyes.

 **ooo**

The next morning, when Bella opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was Victoria sitting in her rocking chair, reading a book. Upon closer inspection, Bella noticed that it was her worn copy of Wuthering Heights.

Bella lightly cleared her throat to catch Victoria's attention, even if there was no need to. The dark red eyes focused on her. Bella gasped when she saw how bright the pair of orbs were. They were almost glowing. The last night, due to the darkness and her exhaustion, she had missed noticing those eyes.

"I never took you as one to be interested in reading that book," Bella pointed out conversationally.

Victoria gently put the book down, so as to not damage it further. "When you have all the time in the world with nothing to do, you would be surprised by the most trivial of things that catches your attention."

"Why did you have nothing to do?" Bella asked genuinely curious.

Victoria sighed softly. "When you are a low-class, illiterate, young girl who is as poor as it can be, you soon find out that you have nothing to do, even if you are a vampire."

"What do you mean?" Bella asked confused.

"Did you honestly think that all those feminist movements were for nothing?" Victoria asked rhetorically. "Even in these times, women face more problem than men; you can easily imagine our plight half a millennium ago."

Bella decided to leave the depressing topic be. "I thought you would be gone by now."

The vampire crossed her legs. "And do exactly what? At least here I have an excuse of tending to you to pass my time." She looked away from Bella. "Loneliness is an old friend that never leaves your side."

That sentence was obviously not for Bella's ears the way Victoria said it so softly, however Bella still heard it. It was back again: the sad and depressing Victoria.

She tried to get up, and winced at the sudden pain in her arm. Victoria was by her in an instant. "Careful there, Miss Swan. You still have that IV in your vein. You should not move too much."

Bella was touched by Victoria's concern, but the need to get up was urgent. "Ah…" she trailed off. "I….uhm…I need to go to the bathroom." She blushed.

"Alright." The vampire said and helped Bella sit up on her bed. "I cannot remove your IV. The blood is still not fully replenished. You will have to take that along with you."

"How much blood did you gave me?" Bella asked squinting her eyes.

"This is the fourth." The vampire said pointing to the small pile of empty blood bags on her desk that she hadn't noticed previously and Bella was shocked.

"Fourth?" she asked in a shaking voice.

"Yes, Miss Swan. Fourth."

Victoria helped Bella to the bathroom without saying anything. She placed the blood bag on the hanger for clothes so that it was easy for Bella to reach and was close enough to not stretch the IV too far.

Bella looked down shyly when Victoria did not move out of the bathroom, "Would you please…" she looked towards the door.

Victoria cleared her throat, "Oh yeah." She said and left Bella alone. After a few minutes when Bella came out, Victoria once again helped her in the bed.

After Bella was comfortable in bed, she asked, "Is it normal that I am being given so much blood?"

Victoria pondered for a moment before saying anything. Finally she sighed and said, "No Miss Swan, it is not. I took too much blood. It is a miracle that you are still alive. I am amazed that your blood is not replenished fully, yet you are not in hypovolemic shock. You would have been dead by now, or at least in coma."

Bella winced listening to Victoria talking about her death so easily. Well, she was nothing more than a piece of food for her. No matter how much it hurt, it was true. She after all, did not have feelings for all the chickens she ate, so why would the vampire feel anything for her? After all, Bella was nothing more than food for her. It was Edward who made her believe that she could be something more.

"What time it is?" Bella asked groggily, looking at the bright light that was streaming in even though the curtains on the windows were closed.

"It's one in the afternoon."

"I slept for that long?" Bella asked surprised.

"Yes. You were extremely exhausted and were showing severe symptoms of the blood loss." Victoria said, brushing Bella's hair out of her face. "It's okay though. After all that blood, you won't go into coma or suffer any long term consequences, but you still will need a lot of rest in the coming weeks.

"What did my father say?" Bella asked suddenly.

"He came up once to check on you and saw you sleeping, so he went to the police station." Victoria said. "I had to hide all the blood bags and the blankets to not make him suspicious.

Something suddenly struck Bella and her eyes went as wide as saucers.

"Please don't hurt my Dad," Bella said in a pleading voice.

"Why would I…" Victoria said in an offended tone when Bella gripped her hand tightly and interrupted her.

"No, please." Her voice was borderline hysterical. "Promise me that whatever you will do to me, you won't touch my Dad. Kill me, maim me, torture me, do whatever you want, but please don't hurt my Dad." Bella was begging now, her eyes full of tears.

Victoria looked pensive for a long time before speaking. "I promise Miss Swan. No harm will befall your father from me."

"Thank you," Bella said in a grateful voice.

The next several minutes passed in silence with Bella lost in her thoughts and Victoria returning to her books. During that time, Victoria once again changed the blood bag swiftly and said that it would be the last bag she would give her. She did not want her to suffer from anything just because she was not careful.

About an hour later, when Bella got hungry, Victoria brought her the same food she had given her the previous day.

"I want something else. I am bored of eating these fruits." Bella said petulantly.

"These fruits are the only things that will help you replenish blood easily, Miss Swan," Victoria said with amusement on her face.

"How did you get so many things in such a small time?" Bella asked taking a big bite of an apple, "Is there any grocery store close by that I don't know about?"

"I have my ways." Victoria smiled mysteriously, giving her a shrug.

"Do you even have money to buy all of this?" Bella asked looking at her curiously.

"Who needs money when you can shop at super-speed with people being none the wiser about it?" The vampire asked grinning dangerously.

"Stop it," Bella said, swatting Victoria's arm. All that did was hurt her own hand.

"Stop what, Miss Swan?" The vampire asked with raised eyebrows.

"Why do you always look at me like you are going to eat me anytime?" Bella asked rubbing her palm. "That's it- the way you are looking at me right now. Do you always have to be so dangerous? Come on, your secret's safe with me."

Victoria shrugged, not giving any answer, but held a sly smile on her face.

Suddenly Bella realized what had happened two days ago. "Speaking of dangerous, why did you decide to give me that dangerous experience throwing me in the air and running and trying to terrify me?"

Victoria grinned her usual feral grin. "You were over-familiarizing with me, Miss Swan. I just had to show you your place. You don't really think that I did something wrong, do you?" she asked in a childlike voice, pouting and all.

"Bella," Bella said suddenly, making Victoria look at her confusedly.

"My name is Bella. When are you going to call me by name? What is with Miss Swan?" The girl tried to imitate Victoria's voice.

The vampire shrugged. "I'll call you that when you deserve it."

"You mean that after everything you have done to me and the time we have spent together, I still don't deserve being called by my name?" Bella scoffed.

Victoria once again shrugged.

"Well, then I guess that it'll be Miss Swan forever." She said in a pouting voice.

The vampire chuckled darkly once but said nothing.

They kept on talking about random things and interests when the sound of Charlie's police cruiser came. Bella was startled. "It's six already?"

"Yes, it is." Victoria stood and approached Bella's bedside. She removed the catheter from Bella's arm and bandaged the puncture wound securely. "I have to take my leave now. If your father asks, tell him that you fell and had somebody bandage it for you. He'll believe in your clumsiness."

"Haha." Bella gave a fake laugh, though, nonetheless, she had a pleasant smile on her face. "Will I see you later tonight?"

The vampire turned back in the middle of jumping out of the window. "Maybe you will but don't count on it." She said that with a smile on her face, but for a change, it was a soft, parting, goodbye smile.

"Do me a favor and just rest," the redhead said and in an instant was out of the window, leaving Bella smiling behind her.

 **ooo**

It was well into the night when the window to Bella's room creaked open and the redhead slunk in. The noise caused Bella to stir in her bed and look up. "Victoria?" she queried groggily.

"I am here, Miss Swan," the vampire said softly. "Go back to sleep."

"No," Bella said petulantly. "C'mere." She patted the empty space beside her on the bed.

"I don't think that it is a good idea, Miss Swan." Victoria said in a concerned voice.

"No," Bella said a little louder. "We will just sleep, I promise. I won't do anything. Please." Bella pouted and Victoria sighed before she slowly came to stand beside the bed.

"Scoot over Miss Swan," the redhead said and Bella almost fell off the bed in trying to make more space for the vampire.

Victoria slowly removed the covers and got in the bed beside Bella, trying not to touch her and stay as far as possible from the girl. However, Bella had another idea altogether and she took the vampire's arm and put it around herself, attaching herself firmly to Victoria's front.

"G'night Victoria." She said half-asleep and almost missed the soft "Goodnight Miss Swan" that came out of the vampire's mouth.

 **ooo**

 _Bella had no idea where she was, but she was sure that it was a dream. It was not like any place she had ever been. The place was completely in ruins. There was a big stone-shaped structure that looked like a sentinel deity guarding that place from unwanted visitors._

 _She slowly moved up the wood stairs that were equally in ruins. She feared for her life. One wrong step and she would plunge down hundreds of feet into the ravine towards her imminent death. She knew that it was a dream, but she could not help believe that it was more real than life itself._

 _The stairs creaked and Bella prayed that she reached the destination safely. Suddenly, there was a loud CRACK that pierced the air and to her horror, Bella saw the wooden planks begin to fall down the depths of the ravine._

 _Bella closed her eyes briefly and began running towards the small arch-like entrance to survive. She decided to risk everything and took a big leap and to her amazement, she was on the step of the entrance, watching the wooden planks fall down. Well, there went her way back._

 _She stepped forward but collided with something invisible in the dark entrance. It was a big gate preventing her entry. Plus, the arch was not too wide where she could do anything other than stand._

 _Suddenly her gaze went to her right where on a stone table, a big knife was resting. Just beside the knife, there was a carving of a closed circle with several intercrossing lines, maybe some ancient rune. Bella instinctively knew what she had to do._

 _She picked the knife up and sliced a big gash along her palm. Bella winced and opened her palm. Blood started oozing out. She put her hand above the circle and blood flowed from her palm into the circle. It glowed bright orange and with a thunderous roar, the gate at the entrance opened._

 _Bella stepped forward and found herself standing in a temple. The ceiling of the temple was too high and it was in the shape of a pyramid, as much as she could tell. It was a huge temple with weird drawing of people all around the walls._

 _Upon closer inspection, Bella found out that they were not people, rather some gruesome creatures, hunting people. The images were so horrifying that Bella shuddered just by looking at them._

 _She kept walking forward when she saw that there were thousands of statues on pedestals that littered the temple. Everywhere she could see, there were statues. As Bella kept on walking forward, it soon became clear what they actually were._

 _There were statues of nosferatu, moroi, the strigoi, the mullo, the cold ones, the Dracula, the Wampyr and all kinds of blood-sucking creatures. It was a temple dedicated to vampires._

 _Every single statue was short and had large glowing eyes. They were obviously rubies. Suddenly Bella felt like all the statues were about to move. She screamed and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she was standing on a terrace and none of the statues were to be seen._

 _It was all calm and serene. A cool breeze was flowing and Bella could sense the happiness in the air. She walked to the center of the terrace and saw that there was a large chalice on the floor. It could easily hold several liters of water. The chalice was decorated with flowers and colored powders in strange patterns._

 _Beside the chalice, there was something kept covered in a red cloth. Bella hesitantly picked up the item and removed the cloth. It was a scroll that looked centuries old. She slowly opened the scroll, so as to not damage it and glanced at it._

 _The contents were in some ancient language, but Bella could read them clearly. There in a beautiful calligraphy, was written,_

 ** _"To have something, you must give something."_**

 _Suddenly, the scroll turned in a big knife and Bella knew that she had to give up her life if she wanted to get away. Oddly, the idea of giving her life did not seem unappealing._

 _Before, she could lose her courage, Bella sliced her wrist open and the blood began collecting in the chalice. As more and more blood poured out of her, Bella began to lose consciousness._

 ** _The moment before she lost her life, Bella heard words spoken in a deep voice. Somebody was speaking the words in her mind, "When you will give somebody your love, you will get it ten times in return. To have something, you must give something."_**

There was a sharp pain in her chest and Bella woke up sweating. It took her a few moments to notice where she was, but when she did, she sighed in relief. Somehow, she had turned towards Victoria and was now laying in her arms. The vampire said nothing andcontinuedstroking her hair.

Bella slowly loosenedthefistshe hadscrunched up in Victoria's shirt. She ran her fingers over the vampire's smooth face and stroked her cheeks, her lips and her eyes. "So beautiful,"she murmured distractedly.

"Go back to sleep, Miss Swan." She heard those alluring words and a gentle kiss was dropped on her forehead before Bella found herself slipping back into Morpheus' realm.

 **ooooooo**


	6. Hot And Cold

**Chapter 6:**

 **Hot & Cold**

 **4th January…**

Bella drove by the road stewing in her anger. Darn that vampire for making her feel things that she had repressed for a long time. Darn her for making her believe in a better and happy future that was once again taken away from her grasp. No, not taken away, snatched. Her future had ended before it could even begin.

Two times she had fallen in love and both the times the vampires left her for good. Both the times she lost more than just her loves. Both the times, a big chunk of her heart was ripped away, never to be put together again. Both the times she had fallen in love when she should have run away. But no, she had to go make the same mistake twice. And twice that mistake had come back to bite her. Which was two more times than she would have wanted. After all, Bella was no masochist.

She could not control her anger anymore. She had to do something. She just had to do. She felt like she would combust anytime. Oddly, this time there were no tears, this time there was no loss of feeling. This time there was only heartbreak and anger. Lots and lots of anger. At Victoria and at herself. Mostly at herself.

Suddenly her truck gave a lurch to the right after the wheels went over a big piece of rock. Bella drove her truck for a few more minutes and then suddenly stopped it. She looked to her right where the river stood below just beyond the cliffs. Bella knew what she was going to do, what she wanted to do.

She turned the engine off and walked out of her truck. She kept on walking until she reached the cliff just down which the river started. She looked down the cliff. It had to be more than two hundred feet. She had never been to cliff jumping and suddenly the itch to jump down was overwhelming.

Darn Jacob for showing her this cliff. It was an insane idea that the boy had put in her mind and now she wanted nothing more than to act on it. Darn Jacob once again for starting this mess. Once again, he had managed to put his foot where he should not have. Darn Victoria for her incessant bout of jealousy and leaving her. The nerve of the vampire to say that she was in a relationship with somebody even though she had no claim on her! If the redhead wanted her so badly, why the hell did she not come forward with the admission?

Bella groaned- she was not in a mood for this. Even thinking about it caused her heart to hurt more and she could not bear that pain anymore.

She kicked off her shoes and socks and left them a few feet away from her. After thinking something, she took off her jacket and sweater, leaving her in a thin shirt and her jeans. The cold was now biting against her skin and it made her want to go back into the warmth of her truck. But Bella did not go. She could not go back.

Bella took a deep breath and looked around herself. There were no Edward or Victoria. No sign of them, not even a flickering memory. Was that how she was destined to go out? Alone and unloved?

She shook her head and readied herself for what she was about to do. Bella took a deep breath once more and without another thought, threw herself off the cliff.

The only emotion that was present in Bella's heart was serenity and content and a sense of adventure as she took a plunge into the freezing waters below.

 **ooo**

 **Two Weeks Earlier…**

Bella could not be any happier. Three months had passed in absolute bliss and everything was perfect. Well, not perfect; she could do with more of what she had but it was good, definitely better than what she had expected and could imagine in a hundred thousand years. Everything was good.

Her school life was going well, she was now officially out of her depression and she had also managed to reconcile with her friends. To top it all, she was now very close to Victoria. Yes, she could definitely do with more of that and she wanted it but for now, all was good.

Bella closed her notebook with a huff. Her mind was somewhere else and she did not want to listen to any more of the droning voice of her teacher who was talking about something she had no idea of. Studies were not that important when you had a vampire 'girlfriend?' waiting for you back at home. Certainly not important when you might not remain a human for long. And certainly not that important when you might have to repeat these classes for the rest of your existence.

Bella took out her cellphone discretely and sent a text to her vampire. _What are we doing tonight?_ Somehow in the span of last months, Victoria had become her vampire.

The reply was instantaneous. _What do you want to do?_

 _Bella smiled a wide smile. Well, usually you are the one to tell me things. I just have to follow you._

 _The reply came back less than five seconds later, I thought that I should give you a chance to make plans._

Bella smiled once again. Victoria usually was flirtatious and she was the one taking the reins in the relationship (if it could be called so) but that did not mean that she never let her dictate their plans once in a while.

 _It took Bella a few seconds to type the response. I think that we should just stay in my room tonight, have a nice chat and maybe watch some movies?_

 _As expected, the reply came almost instantly. You are the boss here, Miss Swan. Do whatever you want to do._

 _Bella sent a text just to be sure. We don't have to do that if you don't want to. We could go out and have a nice time._

 _The reply was a bit depressing. I don't have any problem with your original plan, Miss Swan. We could just watch movies in your room._

Bella's smile turned into a frown. See, that was the reason she sometimes did not like Victoria. The vampire totally refused to talk about what was going on between them and decided to sweep everything under the rug as if nothing was happening.

One thing that Bella had no idea was why the vampire acted like that. After almost dying and then Victoria saving Bella, the redhead was quite affectionate, touching her and making her calm down and joking and enjoying life with her. Bella knew that it was not perfect but life was good. Then one day, suddenly, Victoria stopped being so kind and careful. Yes, she was still careful and caring but not as before.

It was like Victoria was afraid of Bella and was trying to maintain some distance from her. Which surely had to be absurd. Bella was sure that Victoria knew that she was harboring romantic feelings towards the vampire and wanted nothing more than to be with her but the vampire was slowing pulling away. What was Victoria afraid of? Falling in love with a human?

Or was it some twisted case of, _It's not you, it's me?_ Whatever it was, Bella was sure that she hated Victoria for that. Yes, she could say that with surety that she was in love with her but she hated her. Even perfect people have something they can be hated for. Victoria was no exception to that rule.

 _Okay then, which movie do you want to watch?_ Bella sent the text, a little disappointed. She wanted to spend some quality time with the vampire who wanted everything other than that.

 _I don't have a preference, Miss Swan. Choose whichever you want. The response was instantaneous._

Bella, however knew that it would be anything but romantic movies. One or two times she had made the mistake of getting romantic movie for them to watch and the entire time the vampire either complained about the movie or sat stiffly scowling at Bella making her self-conscious.

Before Bella could ask for anything else, the text came and her cellphone vibrated _, By the way don't you have any classes to attend to?_

Bella swallowed the curse which would have escaped her mouth after she read the text. Why was Victoria hell bent over making her hate her? Bella knew that both of them were aware about Bella's bodily response for the vampire and that she was deep in love with her. Even then, Victoria would go on antagonizing her. What did the vampire hope to achieve by that?

Bella replied a single word, _Okay,_ to Victoria and put her cellphone down. It would not do any good to insult the vampire. Victoria was too proud of a creature to back down from a challenge. Bella was sure that sometimes she saw the same look reflected in the vampire's eyes, the look of love and longing. However, her actions spoke otherwise.

Bella knew that someday sooner or later she would crack and that would either make all her dreams come true or cause her to be killed by the vampire. But would that happen before or after she became a vampire?

Victoria had talked about it a couple of times in passing that she could not leave Bella a human. She either had to die or turn. Bella knew that Victoria was even considering the aspects of turning her into a vampire.

A tiny bit of hope began blooming in Bella's chest that once she was a vampire, Victoria would come to her. But then again, there was this small nagging doubt in her mind, _what if?_ What if Victoria did not turn her? Could Bella live her whole eternity hanging somewhere in between the lines of friends and something possibly more?

She did not have the answer to that question.

 **ooo**

 **24th December…**

The Christmas Eve was a bittersweet affair. Bella only had her father to spend the day with and all day they just stayed at home and watched TV and ate something or the other. Even though they could have done with something grander, Bella was happy. For once, her father was not angry at her and they were enjoying every bit of it.

Two was not a crowd, not by any means but it was certainly more than what she had the last year. The same time previous year, she was in a catatonic state with nobody to be there for her. Well, her father was there and she had her friends but she had pushed them all afar.

It was not a time to think of the past happenings, Bella reminded herself. She had to live in the present and think ahead. Though the future seemed dark and bleak but for now, Bella was happy.

Charlie got her a new computer as the older one she had was giving her too much trouble. It was more than she had expected him to give her considering all the stunts she had pulled in the last one year but she was pleasantly surprised with the gift. He was her father and he loved her even though he was angry and disappointed at her actions.

The next day they were invited to the La Push reservation and Bella was conflicted about going back there. The last time she was there, it was the time when she and Jacob were working on the bikes and only focused on having a good time. She had not heard from him after that day she had to reject him. The boy sure knew how to hold a grudge. It was about six months later and she had not gotten a single call or text from him.

It was not like she had not tried to contact him but the fact the he refused to take any of her calls or texts finally made her leave him alone. If he could not be friend to her just because he wanted something more, then he was not even worth being a friend.

Bella thought of all of the previous times that she had managed to get out of Charlie taking her to La Push by making some excuse but this time she was at a loss. She could not say no during the festive season.

It was about ten in the night when Charlie went to sleep and Bella decided to retire to her room. Her visit with Victoria was due and she could not help but feel that this was some kind of a date. She nowadays was often angry at Victoria's shenanigans but she would not say no if the vampire asked her for a movie night herself.

Bella softly closed the door and saw the vampire sitting on her bed inspecting her room. She had been here countless number of times but still she was looking around as if everything was new to her.

Bella could not control the grin that spread on her face when she saw the vampire sitting cross legged on her bed, hugging a pillow. She softly closed the door and Victoria turned towards her. For once, the vampire herself was sporting a soft smile on her face.

"Hi." Bella said coming closer to her bed and sitting on it.

The vampires replied in the same soft tone, "Hello Miss Swan, hope you had a nice day."

Bella gushed with enthusiasm, "Yes, I did. It gets even better now that you are here."

She held her breath after saying that in case Victoria said something degrading to her but the vampire pleasantly surprised her, "Well, then let's make it even better.'"

The vampire was holding a compact disc in her hands and Bella came closer to see the title printed on it. Bella was shocked to see that it was Titanic. Finally, a romantic movie and Victoria was the one to suggest they should watch it. The night was getting more magical with each moment. It really felt like a romantic one.

Bella inserted the disc into her computer drive and they sat down on the bed to watch the movie. Usually Victoria would take the rocking chair in the room but not today. They sat very close to each other with their shoulders touching and if Bella leaned even just a little, their cheeks would also be pressed to each other's.

Bella could not stop the suspicion anymore that the vampire had some ulterior motive. She was not afraid of getting killed anymore. But there was one thing. Was Victoria planning on seducing her? If yes, then it was working.

Bella had seen the movie many times before but with Victoria it felt like the first time. Internally she was jumping with joy that she was sitting so close to the vampire and there was a chance of something more.

Sometime during the movie, Bella decided to risk making Victoria angry and laced their fingers together. The vampire in response, tightened their fingers together holding Bella's hand in her lap. If Bella had been happy earlier, she was now on cloud nine. That was one of the most romantic gestures she had seen from the vampire and so many in row were the first.

It was quarter to two by the time the end credits were rolling and Bella had tears in her eyes. Victoria only had some indiscernible expression on her face.

"I wish I had somebody to love me like that." Bella murmured softly after she had switched off her computer.

"What?" The vampire asked, "Somebody who would let you die and save themselves in the end and then move on with somebody else? That's nice to know." She commented amused.

The mood lightened and Bella chuckled lightly, "No, I was talking about Rose. Someone to love her till the very end and dying himself to save her."

"You won't find that kind of love. Good luck." Victoria muttered scoffing.

"No," Bella protested, "That kind of love happens. Just because it may not be grand gestures or stuffs, it does not mean it's not there. When you love somebody truly, you would do anything for them."

The vampire scoffed again, "You humans and your ridiculous ideas and fantasies about true love." Her tone was slightly off edge and her voice broke on the last syllable.

Bella was taken aback with the force behind Victoria's protest, "What brought this up?" She asked softly, hooking her fingers underneath the vampire's chin and slowly lifted her face.

The vampire's eyes were brimming with unshed tears that would never fall down. Her face was contorted with pain and Victoria looked as if she would cry any moment. Bella traced a single finger down the vampire's cheek.

The vampire swatted Bella's hands away from her face and spoke in an angry voice, "What you call true love; that does not exist. There is no true love. If somebody loves you, they will always be together with you, they won't leave you alone to suffer the miserable existence."

Bella knew what brought this up. She decided to be more open to the vampire, who for once was speaking her heart out.

"We cannot control all the things that happen to us, whatever it is that controls our life is far more powerful than us." Bella spoke softly, "But that does not mean that there is nobody to love us."

The pain in Victoria's eyes were replaced with anger and without moment of hesitation, she tore her shirt off. Bella blushed heavily when she saw that she was not wearing anything underneath. She had never imagined to be seduced like that.

"Then how do you explain this?" The vampire spoke in a voice full of hatred and turned back showing Bella her naked back. It took Bella a few moments to comprehend what she was seeing but the moment her gaze travelled downwards, she gasped.

There were several long marks on her back that looked like scars that had not healed even with her vampire body and many small puncture wounds littered all over her body that were undoubtedly vampire bites.

For once, when Victoria's glowing skin was not blinding her, Bella could see everything clearly. The light from the lamp on the nightstand illuminated every scar with horrifying clarity.

She had seen Victoria naked earlier but that time she was too mesmerized with her beauty to see the imperfections that marred her back and stomach. Bella looked closely towards her stomach and saw the same pointy wounds covering her torso and breast. This time, she was not overcome with desire that she could not look properly.

"How do you explain this, huh?" Victoria asked in an enraged voice pointing a lone finger to her stomach.

Bella could not breathe for a moment, her heart was pounding in her ears and she was sure that if she made any sudden movement, she would fall down. Who had done this to a creature like Victoria?

"Who?" Bella asked in a shocked whisper.

"James." Victoria spat the name as if it were a curse. "He claimed to love me but he left no opportunity to mark me, to claim me, to show who the boss in our relationship was."

Bella could only listen to Victoria with shocked expression.

The vampire continued, "Our love was nothing but physical fights and then violent aggression. Yes, I loved him and he loved me too but his idea of love was to keep your property close to you and never let go. That all I was to him, Miss Swan- a property, nothing more. Yes, he loved me and you can see the proof of his love."

"Why did you not leave him then?" Bella asked in a troubled voice. Her eyes were once again getting wet.

"Because I was like you," Victoria spoke in a heated voice, "Too far mesmerized by the shine and beauty to look beyond the surface. Only that mine did not leave me, he took me and promised a lifetime of love and togetherness. Only that I did not have the chance to choose to become a vampire, it was thrust upon me and I had to choose between my life and him. Guess what I did."

Bella could not speak anything and Victoria continue, "If you think you have been in hell, you have not even seen the worst. You never had to feel what happens when somebody loves you too much. Sometimes you want to die but you cannot leave the person behind. So, don't just sit there on your high horse and pretend to know that you know everything about love. Because it does not exist."

"Did he…" Bella could not even say the word.

"Yes, Miss Swan, he did." Victoria said in the same emotionless tone but her eyes betrayed the pain she was feeling. They were brimming with venom tears. "He did more than that."

Victoria spoke after taking a deep breath even though she did not need to, "And then he goes and gets himself killed. I lost the man I loved Miss Swan and I lost my mate too. I am angry at him that he decided to take the risk but I also feel glad that he died." There, that was the moment Victoria confessed her most shameful memories and thoughts.

The vampire lowered her eyes, unable to meet Bella's browns.

Bella once again lifted Victoria's chin and softly wiped her cheeks, even though there was no trace of any tear drops, "I am sorry, Victoria. I never knew." She caressed the vampire's cheeks. "I am sorry that so much happened to you. I cannot say that I understand you but I will say that this does not have to define you. You can put all of that in the past."

"I cannot put that in the past, Miss Swan." Victoria said angrily, "Unlike you, we don't change. It will always be who I am."

Bella put both her hands around Victoria's face in a loving gesture, "You don't have to. You can be who you are but you can also be somebody different. I know this might be a bad time but you don't have to be alone. I would love you, I would show you happiness and if you choose, I would spend the eternity with you."

Before Bella could understand, she was slammed roughly to the bed and the vampire was looming over her, dangerous and wild. Both their faces were very close to each other.

Victoria looked feral and menacing right now, "And why do you think I would do so?"

"I don't know," Bella said without flinching, "Eternity is a very long time. It gets lonely."

Victoria leaned very close to Bella, so close that their noses were almost touching one another's, "Oh Miss Swan," Victoria murmured seductively, "So willing to lose everything for a moment of passion! I did not peg you to be that kind of a person." She said rubbing her nose to Bella's cheeks.

Bella could easily recall that it was like the time that she had a dream where they were in the same position back when she was still being hunted by Victoria. Every bit of that dream would soon come true if Bella did not do something soon.

She panicked when she saw the vampire leaning closer to her lips and she tilt her head a little to the left. She wanted Victoria to kiss her, she just did not want it to happen this way.

Bella put her hands on Victoria's chest and tried to push her back. Her attempts were feeble and she was not able to push the vampire back but Victoria herself stopped leaning closer to Bella.

"I thought you wanted this Miss Swan." Victoria tutted.

"I do." Bella said honestly, "But not like this. You are hurting now and I understand that but do not try to hide your hurt behind this cocky demeanor. It's not fair to me and neither to you."

There was a big crack in Victoria's façade after Bella said those words. The vampire released her and took some steps back.

"I love you Victoria and believe me that I want you to kiss me." Bella said passionately. "I want you to do more than that but I won't just be your punching bag whenever you're feeling down. I will wait here for you for all of that but not before that. I don't want our first kiss to be meaningless."

"Then you will be waiting for a very long time, Miss Swan." The vampire spat out.

"It will be worth it." Bella said calmly. She knew that she would wait for it.

Victoria shook her head and turned back, "I do hope that you realize what you are getting into Miss Swan."

"I do." Bella said determinedly and Victoria was gone in an instant.

The moment the vampire closed the window, a lone tear slipped out of Bella's eyes.

 **ooo**

 **25th December…**

Bella decided to forget everything that happened the earlier day and just enjoy the day. She would not let the redhead ruin one more day for her. It was the time of the year to just let yourself forget everything and dive right in. If Victoria wanted to confront her for that, well, she would think about it later. Right now, she would just enjoy.

Charlie just had to ask her once to come along with him to the reservation and Bella jumped the opportunity.

The first person to greet her at the Black's Residence was Jacob who offered her nothing more than a "Hi Bella". He looked very different then the last time she saw her. He had grown more than a foot, now towering over her and had his hair all cropped short. All of his childlike features were gone, leaving in its wake a hard, muscular body with a hardness on his face.

There was a strange coldness to his eyes when he came near her and he looked at her with a scowl. Bella was not sure if he sniffed her but she could see that he started shaking a bit and his eyes shone with hate and fury.

Rachel and Rebekah were a bit better affair than their brother and they both hugged her tightly, even though it had been more than a decade she last saw them. At least they did not desert her.

Joining the family were the Clearwaters- Sue, Leah and Seth, Quill and Embry and a couple of mutual friends of Charlie and Billy. The small house which was now overflowing of people was surrounded in jovial conversations, rowdy laughs and roughhousing between the teenagers. After that, they simply, talked, ate and enjoyed the day. Bella could not remember a time she had this much fun among friends.

She had had a couple of good memories and family outing with the Cullens but that never changed the fact that they were not humans and were basically 'supernatural'. Moreover, they were all over a hundred years old and sometimes acted like old people.

Bella was glad that she decided to ditch the gloomy conversation that would sure had happened had the spent the day with her vampire. She would deal with the aftermath later. Right now, she would just enjoy the day.

It was very late in the evening when Bella saw Jacob and a couple of other boys come inside the house. Jacob went to his father who had a glass of wine in his hand and spoke something to him in a whispered voice.

There were whispered conversations and frantic hand movements and Jacob looked angry. Everybody's attention was drawn to him when he shouted "NO" in a loud voice and then scowled at his father and walked out the house, slamming the door.

Bella shrugged. It was his matter with his Dad. She could not do anything about that. Not when he had ignored her all that time and refused to acknowledge her presence anymore. And for what? Just because she had no interest in him? That was absurd.

Surprisingly, Bella had found a kindred soul during her time in the Black Residence. She and Leah came closer on the fact that both were dumped by the boys who claimed to love them. Leah's case was sadder and depressing than hers as Sam did not decide to leave the Reservation. He had dumped her for another girl, Leah's cousin to be precise and had no shame in showing his love for her in front of everybody.

They had a long talk about that and once when Leah broke down in front of her, Bella had decided to come forward and tell the girl something about her love life. There was love and happiness in Bella's voice when she confessed that she had found love again and this time with a girl. It was nice talking to somebody about everything that was going on in her life, minus the supernatural drama. After that Bella felt relaxed and Leah was calmer than before.

Bella was glad that a new friendship had sprung in her life with the girl.

They were wrapping up the party and ready to head back home when Jacob came back, "Can I talk to you for a second?" He asked in a serious voice.

Bella wanted to say no just for the heck of it and to make him feel how it felt when somebody you called your friend stopped talking to you.

However, Bella decided that she should let Jacob tell his side for once and they chose to take a walk on the nearby road.

"You look happy." Jacob said gruffly.

"I am happy." Bella retorted in the same tone. Two could play that game.

"I am sorry Bella, I did not mean that." Jacob said apologetically.

"You did not mean what?" Bella rounded on him, months of anger breaking out, "That I should be happy? That I should have somebody to love?"

"You are back with him?" Jacob asked in an angry voice and his hands started shaking. He closed his eyes and shook his head a couple of times, "It doesn't matter now."

"I don't have to explain anything to you," Bella said hotly, "But because you ask, no, I am not back with him."

Jacob's eyes widened. "Then there is somebody else."

"What do you mean?" Bella asked confused.

"Bella you have to stay away from him." Jacob said with seriousness in his eyes.

"Him?" Bella was now growing more confused.

"That leech." Jacob spat and Bella could feel her heartbeat getting faster. Did Jacob know something?

"I don't know what you are talking about." Bella said trying to cover up the uneasiness in her voice.

"You don't understand Bella." Jacob yelled in fury, "You have to stay away from your boyfriend."

"Boyfriend?" Bella asked in a confused voice. Then she remembered that Jacob did not know she was with a woman.

"You are not safe Bella." Jacob said angrily. "Please stay away from him. I will help you. You have to break up with him and tell him to go away."

The patronizing tone in which Jacob said that made Bella see red, "I am not doing any such thing."

She jabbed a finger in his chest, "And who the hell are you to tell me to stay away from my …boyfriend? I can be with whomever I want. You don't get a right in that matter."

"Bella please," Jacob said and looked down at her when his gaze went towards her wrist. His eyes widened. He suddenly gripped her hand tightly in his and looked down at her wrist.

"He bit you." Jacob said in a whispery voice. Then he cursed loudly. Bella could only look at him in fear.

"I am going to kill him for that. I told you Bella he is dangerous." Jacob said seething and then suddenly, a light bulb went off in his head, "You are not one of them but you want to be."

Bella was now sure that Jacob believed in those old tales. But why now? What had changed? "I…" She had no idea what to say.

"You don't know what you are doing Bella. You are doing the wrong thing." Jacob said turning to face her and encroaching in her personal space.

"I don't see how that's your business." Bella said taking a step back.

"You want to become a monster Bella." Jacob thundered. "You want to become like them." He then said in a soft voice, "Come back to me Bella. I can save you from him."

"I am not going to do that Jacob. That's my choice." Bella decided to leave the pretense that she knew nothing.

"You are better dead than being with that vampire." Jacob jabbed a finger in Bella's chest causing her to rear back a few steps in pain. Her ribs hurt but more than that, her heart did. She had never believed him to say anything like that.

Her heart was now beating furiously. Jacob was privy of the supernatural world.

"Thanks for that Jacob." Bella spat and turned back to head back to the house.

"Look Bella, I am…" Jacob began to say but Bella cut him off.

"I get that, Jacob." She said in an enraged voice, "I am better off dead. And you know what, thanks to you, I now see that is the better choice."

She left him on the road cursing and shouting angrily and went back inside the house.

Before long, she and Charlie drove back home and Bella went directly into her house and fell asleep on her bed, overcome with the rollercoaster of emotions.

The lean figure sitting on the rocking chair beside her bed just got up and caressed her face softly.

"I'm sorry." It was spoken in a soft voice and Bella did not wake up.

 **ooo**

 **28th December…**

Bella was in the kitchen when rough knocks sounded on the door. Before she could even open the door, a loud voice sounded from outside, "Bella, open the door." There was no mistaking it.

She opened the door and saw Jacob along with two other boys standing tall and shirtless. All of them had matching expression of anger on their faces.

"Where is he?" Jacob said in his gruff voice.

"Where is who?" Bella asked confused. "If you're looking for Charlie, he's at the station."

"I am not looking for Charlie." Jacob said irritated, "Where is your boyfriend?"

This time Bella knew who he was talking about. "What do you need with him?" She asked trying to make her stance bold. If only Victoria could listen to her talking about her that way.

"Don't play games with us Bella," Jacob said in an irritated voice, "Where is he? We need to deal with him."

"What's your problem, Jacob?" Bella asked getting angry. "You can't barge into somebody's home demanding things."

"Look Bella," The boy standing next to Jacob said, "Where is your boyfriend? You are in grave danger being in his presence. He can hurt you or your father. Please tell us now."

"I am not doing any such thing." Bella said and crossed her hands on her chest.

Suddenly, Jacob twitched violently and he snarled. Giving his friends just a glance, he pushed Bella aside and barged his way inside.

"He was here a few hours ago." Jacob stated more than said in a voice full of rage.

"So, what?" Bella asked irritated, "You can't get into somebody's house without announcing."

Jacob ignored her and made his way inside past the furniture inside the kitchen. He looked around for a few moments and then growled angrily. His whole body started to shake.

"Jacob, control it." The big boy said and put a hand on the boy's shoulders. Jacob just shook his head and snarled again.

"Dammit Bella," He yelled, "Tell me where he is so that I can finish off that leech for once and all."

Bella could not believe her eyes and ears. Jacob was acting like a possessed person. He was acting so strange. Suddenly she saw that Jacob was holding the knife in his hand, the same knife that she was using to cut the vegetables. His hand was bleeding but he did not seem to be aware. Moreover, to her horror, the knife was bent permanently.

Suddenly things started making sense. She could remember the young Jacob telling her about the cold ones and his tribesmen, the werewolves. Bella could feel getting clammy. Her heart started beating faster. If vampires could exist, why not werewolves?

Bella could not think of anything to do. She knew that it was a good chance that they were looking for Victoria and trying to hunt her. Bella could not let it happen. She had to save her vampire and not let these wolves find about anything. As far as she knew, they were unaware of the redhead's existence.

She just said trying to act brave, "Get out of my house right now, or I will call Charlie."

Jacob snarled once again and walked out, slamming the door of the house. The other two boys gave her a look of pity, "You have no idea what you are doing Bella. You are putting everybody in danger." With that they left her alone.

 **ooooooo**


	7. Down Down Under

**Chapter 7:**

 **Down Down Under**

 **30th December-**

"Hey no, you're kidding." Bella laughed into the phone, "It can't be like that."

 _"Believe me Bella, it was."_ The voice came from the other side, _"It was."_

"Come on Leah," Bella whined, "Stop messing around. Tell me the truth."

 _Leah sighed into the phone,_ "I told you Bella, it was like that."

"So you mean to say that he just fell into your lap while asking you out on a date?" Bella asked with amused disbelief.

"Yeah." _Leah laughed,_ "He literally fell into my lap. He was already blushing before he could ask me and after that he could not even look me in the eyes."

"And you decided to accept his proposal to date? How cute!" Bella remarked with an amused laugh.

"I told you somebody pushed him from behind. He did not fell out of nervousness." _Leah said in a laughing voice._

Both of them laughed after that.

"So what now? You going on a date with him?" Bella asked after a moment of pause.

 _"I guess I will."_ Leah sighed into the phone.

"What do you mean you guess?" Bella asked in a suspicious voice.

"I am not sure." _Leah said after a little pause,_ "After all that has happened to me, I am a bit afraid of taking that path once again."

"Leah," Bella said in a concerned voice, "I know what Sam did to you was horribly wrong but you have got to move on from him. You can't put your life on hold for somebody who does not care about you. Go out, take a leap of faith and see if it turns out to be what you desire."

Leah nodded into the phone. When she realized that Bella could not see her, she spoke in a soft voice, _"I know. I will."_

"See, that is what you need to do. Have some fun and just enjoy. Don't make any notion about what might happen or might not. Just enjoy!" Bella said in a strict yet gentle voice.

"You are telling me as if I have never been on a date." _Leah laughed._

"It has been so long that you might have never been to one." Bella said, "I am sure you have forgotten by now how to date." She laughed.

"Okay, enough about my date life." _Leah said changing the topic,_ "What about yours? Is your girlfriend taking you out on a date?"

Bella sighed into the phone, "I have no idea. She is not even my girlfriend. Sometimes she acts like we are the best of lovers and at times, she acts like we are mortal enemies. I am honestly confused."

"Why don't you take your own advice? Take a leap of faith?" _Leah asked in a curious voice._

"Tried, didn't work." Bella sighed.

"You know, if she is not giving you enough time, I guess you should start looking for somebody else." _Leah said in a careful voice not to make Bella angry._

"I can't. I don't think I would find anybody who would be better than her." Bella said in a sad voice.

"You talk like she is your soulmate." _Leah laughed._

"She might as well be." Bella said, unable to tell Leah how much that might be true.

"You know Bella, if I were dating you, I would give you everything in the world." _Leah said in a gentle, determined voice._

"I know, Lee, I know." Bella said. She suddenly looked up and saw Victoria sitting on the window frame.

"Okay, I gotta go, call you later." Bella said into the phone.

"Ok Bella bye. Love you." _Leah spoke._

"Love you too, bye." Bella said and disconnected the call. She turned once again to look at the vampire and saw that Victoria was wearing a displeased expression on her face.

"A good talk with her?" Victoria said in a dark voice.

"Yes, it was." Bella replied irritably, "What's the matter with you? Why are you acting like this?"

"I always act like this." The vampire said with a hard expression on her face.

Bella sighed. It looked like she would be sighing all day, "No you don't." She said in a soft voice. "Did something happen?"

"Nothing happened." Victoria said with a snap.

Bella rubbed her forehead and stood up from her bed. She slowly walked up to Victoria and gently took her hand in her own, "Come on, you can talk to me."

At first, the vampire said nothing but then she pushed Bella on the bed and climbed up on her so that they both were lying on the bed with Victoria on top of Bella. Their noses were almost touching.

Victoria slowly ran her thumb across Bella's face and cheeks, taking special care about her cheeks and nose. When her fingers reached Bella's lips, the said person gasped.

"It's cold." Bella said removing Victoria's hand and the vampire let her. But she did not stop and nuzzled Bella's face.

"What are you doing?" Bella laughed, "It tickles."

The vampire said nothing. She just kept on nuzzling her and rubbing her face all over Bella as if she was marking her by spreading her scent all over the human. Bella let her do that. It was a nice change from the constant fighting they were going through.

But when Victoria's hand reached Bella's breasts, she gasped loudly and pushed Victoria away from her.

"I thought you wanted this." Victoria complained. Was there a tinge of hurt that Bella detected in Victoria's voice?

"I told you Victoria, I do." Bella said seriously, "But not like this. You don't talk to me, you don't want to spend time with me. And when you do, you just want to seduce me." Her voice grew sadder, "I want this but not just this. I want all of it. Why can't you give me what I want?"

The vampire said nothing. She just kept on looking at Bella with some inscrutable expression on her face.

"If you wanted just this, why didn't you do all of that when I first came to you?" Bella asked with a huff. "Why wait till now?"

The vampire said nothing. She just got up from the bed and spoke in a harsh voice, "Enjoy your Lee." There was venom in her voice, "I hope she gives you all of this."

Only the swinging window framed the picture that Victoria had once again left Bella alone in the room.

 **ooo**

 **1st January-**

Bella had decided that she could not just let Victoria take the charge of their relationship, if it could be called so. She needed to do things her own way. It was getting tougher and tougher every moment to be like this- hanging somewhere in the friend zone.

She needed to take things into her own hands if she wanted to go any further. By the rate the things were going, she would be in her eighties before the vampire admitted that she loved her. She needed to do things her own way.

Bella drove on the small road that was now imprinted to the back of her mind. First Edward and now Victoria, that road and that house symbolized something very important to her. Things were happening under so very different circumstances but on the outside, they were a lot similar than she had previously judged them to be.

Edward and Victoria. Victoria and Edward.

Bella halted her truck with a tight slam to her brakes and the vehicle protested loudly. It came to a sudden stop and Bella slammed back to the seat of the car with a loud groan.

Her heart started beating loudly and she felt like puking. She could not breathe. Bella quickly undid the seatbelt and stepped out of her truck. She took the support of the frame of the door of the truck to stop her from falling.

Victoria and Edward. Edward and Victoria. Things were insanely more similar than they were different.

Two vampires she had fallen in love with. Two vampires who seemed to love her. Two vampires who wanted to love her. Two vampires who wanted to kill her. Two vampires who saved her. Two vampires who had difficulty loving her. Two vampires who did not want to love her. Two vampires troubled with their past. Two vampires fighting themselves just to be near her. Two vampires unable to leave her. Two vampires keeping their distances from her.

Things were a lot similar. Yes, there were a lot of differences between the two vampires she had fallen in love with but things seemed to go like they were similar.

Bella began to feel clammy. Was this love story of her destined to doom? End before it could even begin? It sure was looking like that. As her mind began to run, she started to notice the similarities in her behavior too for the vampires.

She was fascinated by the beauty and glow of both the vampires to ignore the danger she was in. She clung to them with all of her being so that she could have what she thought was a perfect life. She was so overcome by the need to be loved by the perfect creatures that she forgot everything about herself and let them dictate their relationship. She let them play with her heart and let them crush it to pieces whenever they decided.

And Victoria was playing with her heart and crushing it to pieces. But what was more damaging was the fact that Bella was letting her do that. The vampire had no right to act like she was cheating on her. They were not together in the first place. She just wanted to be physical with her and when Bella asked for more, she ran away.

Bella had unknowingly taken the submissive role in their relationship and this was driving a wedge between them. Something was happening between them- their relationship was crumbling to pieces and Bella had no idea how to save it. They were on the verge of breaking up without even being together in the first place.

Bella took deep gulps of breaths to calm her racing heart down. She opened her jacket when she began to feel hot. It did the trick and the cold made her able to breath in a few moments. Bella got back into her truck and started the heater full force.

She sat there thinking for a long time. She needed to see Victoria but this time, she was not going to meet her as the lovesick, meek girl she originally was going as. If was wanted some answers, she was going to get some. It was time that she rectified everything that went wrong with her previous relationship and going wrong with this one too. She needed to assert herself. She needed to make herself an equal factor into the relationship and take on an equal footing in their decision making. That was what a relationship was.

She would ask the vampire for answers and demand to explain herself. With a newfound confidence Bella did not know she possessed, she started her journey to get the answers and hopefully convince her vampire that things would be better if she could just accept that Bella wanted more than just physical intimacy.

Turning left from the highway into the mile-long driveway to the house, Bella looked at the looming building in the distance. It appeared unchanged. Bella had no idea what change she might have been looking for but she could not find any. She had not been here after Victoria took her to that wild ride several months ago. Maybe she was hoping that the redhead might have remodeled the house as per her desire but as she came closer, it became clearer that there was no electricity, the gardens were not being taken care of and weeds had started to grow all over the walls of the house.

The door was unlocked as Bella had expected. For someone who might not want to meet her, Victoria sure had a penchant of leaving the doors open. Bella entered the house without any concern. The vampire must be aware of Bella coming in if she was here. As she walked further into the kitchen, the refrigerator full of blood caught her attention. It was a lot emptier than before which meant that Victoria still had not hunted a human in very long. Or so she assumed. She had not heard of any unexplained murder in any nearby town.

She walked up the flight of stairs and into Esme's room that Victoria had claimed as her own. She was not sure what she would have done if the vampire took Edward's room? Fought tooth and nail for her to move?

The vampire was lying on the bed staring at the ceiling with a forlorn expression on her face. She did not pay any attention to Bella. It was as if she was totally ignoring the presence of the human.

"Victoria." Bella called out her name and the said vampire focused her attention on her.

"Happy new year." Bella thought that might be a good place to begin with.

The vampire said nothing and cast her attention back to the ceiling.

"Happy New Year." Bella said again and the vampire once again looked at her. She kept on looking for a long time before murmuring, "Happy New Year" in the same emotionless voice.

"Are we gonna talk?" Bella asked softly. She decided to give the vampire a chance to have some cordial conversation.

"Don't you have your Lee to talk to?" Victoria spat in a venomous voice.

"That's not fair." Bella said irritably. "I have not done anything to deserve this behavior from you."

"Huh." The vampire scoffed without saying anything.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Bella could not control her temper anymore. It was going on for way too long. "You don't own me. You can't dictate who I talk to or not talk to."

"I am well aware of that Miss Swan." Victoria said angrily, "I don't own you. You are free to be with anyone you want."

Bella marched up straight to Victoria so that's so was looming over her, "Listen to yourself." She said with a sardonic laugh. "You talk about me being with anyone but when I talk to anybody you get jealous."

Victoria got up and glared up at Bella angrily, "I am not your girlfriend Miss Swan and I don't have to explain myself to you."

Bella laughed again in the same tone, "You are right Victoria. You are not my girlfriend."

The way Bella spat the word caused the vampire to take an involuntary step back.

"Hurts? Doesn't it?" Bella taunted the vampire. "You said right. I am not your girlfriend. So you should not feel any jealousy. But when I say that I want to be, you don't have enough courage to take that step."

"What did you just say?" The vampire asked threateningly. Bella marched closer to the vampire once again.

"You are a coward, Victoria." Bella jabbed a finger in Victoria's chest. "You are nothing more than a coward. You were screwed over by life, I get that and I understand that but you are doing nothing other than screw me over. What the hell are you so afraid of?"

Victoria just kept on looking at her with fire burning in her eyes. She opened her mouth to speak something but Bella cut her off before any word could come out.

"No." She said with a vehemence. "Don't explain that to me. I have no tolerance for that. I have told you what I need and want from you. If you don't think that you can give me all those, then I guess it's better for both of us to part our ways. You have caused way too much damage."

Victoria was looking at her with her mouth agape and a strange feeling in her eyes. Her attention was trained on Bella's eyes and for that moment, she did not look like she was going crazy with rage. However, Bella had built up too much frustration to actually shut up now.

"I am not interested in Leah. I am only interested in you." She said with a passion. "But all those times you have either wanted to kill me or simply sleep with me. If you don't want to be a part of my life, you should not have come into it or killed me that very day. Either way, you are causing too much hurt."

"I used to think that I was the one with problems but not anymore. You are the one who is screwed up enough not to take another chance. But guess what, someday I will die and then you won't have anything to keep you sane." Bella said taking a deep breath.

Bella knew that emotions were flying high and she might have said a little more than necessary, "I want you Victoria. I want you so very much but if you don't want me, then I think that is where we should quit. I can't do this anymore."

When the redhead did not say anything and looked away, Bella's eyes filled with tears. She knew that there was nothing she could say to make her point. Defeated, she decided that she needed to go. If the vampire cared about her, she would stop her from leaving.

Bella was not stopped even once. Just outside the door when she turned back, Victoria was nowhere to be seen.

 **ooo**

 **2nd January-**

Bella moped the entire day. Anytime her mind drifted back to the conversation she had had or rather not had with Victoria, her eyes brimmed with tears. Nothing had changed. Everything was exactly the same as it had a few days ago, then why did it feel like the world was ending?

Bella's world was once again crumbling around her and this time she had no idea if she could save it. She had given everything she could to this relationship but it seemed like she was fated to doom.

Things were not the same way with Victoria as they had been with Edward. She had given it everything she could. She had fought for them and even tried to talk to Victoria but the redhead was even more stubborn.

Bella had no idea that she was sitting on the table with her eyes watery and tears making a track down her cheeks.

"Bella?" Charlie's voice broke her from her reverie. "What happened kiddo? You are awfully quiet."

Bella just shook her head and wiped her eyes sniffling once.

Charlie looked torn over asking her what it was and letting her have her privacy. In the end, he decided to voice his concern, "What happened Bells? You were like this yesterday too. Did something happen?"

Bella shook her head no but sniffled again.

"Come on sweetheart, you can talk to me." Those words hit Bella hard and she broke into loud sobs.

Charlie got up from his chair and walked around the table to meet her. "What happened?" he asked concerned, "Is everything okay?" He was not the one to show emotions but he had experience with letting Bella have her privacy and giving her time to settle things down, which were not the things he ever wanted to go through again.

Bella could not speak. She only shook her head no. Charlie put a comforting hand on her shoulder and it only made Bella cry harder.

Charlie was not a talker, nor was Bella by any means, however, the show of support he gave her at the moment when Bella's world was crumbling down made her cry harder and lean into her father for support.

"What happened? Did somebody do anything?" Charlie asked in a concerned but soft voice.

Bella only shook her head but the relief of Charlie's face was palpable.

"Did somebody leave you again?" Charlie winced as soon as the words escaped his mouth. He could have phrased it better but Bella did not seem to notice.

She just started crying harder.

"Oh honey!" Charlie closed his eyes and just tugged his daughter closer to him and Bella clung to him.

"She doesn't love me Dad." Bella sobbed brokenly. "She never loved me."

Charlie was startled by the female pronoun but quickly got his bearing back. He could ponder over this later. First of all, his daughter needed him.

"What did she say?" He asked her softly rubbing soft circles on her back.

"She said nothing Dad." Bella whimpered, "She never says anything. I told her that I love her but she did not choose me."

"I am sorry kiddo," Charlie apologized, "Sometimes people don't love you back even when you love them with all your heart."

"That's not it." Bella said looking up at her father with red-rimmed eyes, "All these months back she was nice. She was interested in me and I thought that I could have something nice with her after Edward but she never loved me back."

Charlie only shook his head mournfully, "I don't know what to say Bella. I know what you are going through. I can't tell you that it won't hurt but it gets better with time. You might feel like you can't see anything ahead but I can tell you that not's true."

Bella finally asked him what she wanted to ask all those years ago, "Was this how you felt when Mom left you?"

Charlie closed his eyes with the familiar pain in his heart. When he opened them again, they contained sorrows of the past that still had not gone away, "Yes my child. I did. I can only tell you that it hurts and will always do but you've got to keep living. Sometimes dying seems easier but that's the cowards' way out."

"I don't know how to manage to live through another day after that." Bella said hugging her father again.

"It's tough Bella, I know." Charlie admitted, "But there are more important things and more important people in life to live for. Never forget that."

Bella just nodded her head into Charlie's shirt.

"Come on, let's get you freshened up and we will go out today." Charlie said slowly detaching himself from Bella. "Do you want to go to La Push and meet your friends?"

Bella took a few moments to ponder and then shook her head.

Charlie sighed but then got up, "Never mind, we can do something else. Just the two of us. I don't think we have spent quality time together in a long while. Let's do that."

Bella nodded wordlessly and got up. Maybe an outing with her father would take her mind off the things she so desperately wanted to forget.

 **ooo**

 **3rd January-**

Bella had this strong urge to visit the meadow that Edward took her so long ago. She was itching to do something and as she had nothing else to do, she decided to go take a look and fulfill what her heart wanted so desperately.

After assuring Charlie that she was just going to look around and trek, she drove to the field in her rusty old truck that had now started to give her troubles. It took her longer than usual to reach the place but once she did, she just got off her truck and stood gazing at the field.

The land was filled with snow and nothing was visible except for a couple of trees which also were covered with thin white sheets. It did not look like any reminder of Edward's meadow and Bella could not tell if it was a good thing or not.

She stood there for a long time, thinking what she would say to Edward if he were here with her this moment. Bella closed her eyes imagining that he was here standing beside her.

"Edward." She said to her imagination but this time there was no hallucination, no floating smoke, nothing. Just her and an empty field.

"It's been so long that you left me alone." She started and gulped, "I am over it now, over you but still I can't help but think what would have happened if you did not leave me that fateful day

"Would we have been together?" Bella asked herself. "Would you have told me that we were meant for each other forever? Would you have told me you loved me? Would you still have wanted to come by my house every night just to watch me sleep?"

Bella could feel the emotions constricting her throat so she paused once more for a long time, "I can't help but still think of the day you brought me here, told everything about you and showed me an entire new world. It feels like ages ago

"Do you think of me? Still remember me or have you forgotten me like any other human from your life? Do you still love me?" Bella asked oblivious that tears has started flowing down her cheeks.

"I spent so long thinking that you would come back for me, tell me that you were wrong and that we were meant to be together. I held on to the belief so long that I would get to see you one more time in my life, spend one more moment with you." She sniffled.

"Do you know when it all began to change?" Bella asked non-existent Edward. If she could focus more, she could almost see a faint outline of smoke smiling sadly at her. "It began to change when Victoria entered my life."

"At first I thought that I would not live another moment if I saw her again but now, now I think that I can't live another moment if I don't see her again." Bella chuckled brokenly, "Must feel strange talking to one love about another!"

"But I don't know how I feel. I have not been feeling anything when she left me." Bella shouted into the emptiness. "Just like you left me."

"Do you know how does it feel?" She asked, "It feels like dying. Even death would be better than this. Are you happy that now one more person has left me because she did not want to associate me with your world?"

"Are you happy?" Bella asked. "I loved you with all my heart and I love Victoria too. But none of you loved me back enough to give me what I wanted. Did any of you ever love me at all?"

"Please." Bella begged brokenly, she did not know what she was begging for.

Oblivious to her attention, the whispery smoke of Edward slowly turned into Victoria.

"Please." Bella muttered brokenly once again, "I love you. Please don't leave me. I don't think that I can live without you. Come back to me."

The smoke-Victoria said noting. She just kept on looking at her with emotionless eyes.

"Do you love me?" Bella yelled with everything she had. "Do you love me? Because I love you. After all you did to me, I still love you. Please come back to me. Please come back." Bella muttered with hot tears dripping down her face.

"Please come back. I love you." Bella said whimpering.

A flash of light caught her eyes and Bella looked up and saw the real Victoria standing across the field. Even though her vision was blurry from the tears, Bella could see that she was wearing an expression of hurt, anger and betrayal.

Bella wanted to say something but no words could escape her mouth. They kept staring at each other for a very long time until Victoria turned back and slowly started walking out of the meadow.

"Victoria." Bella said in a meek voice and that was when the vampire disappeared without looking back.

Bella just managed to catch herself on the frame of the truck and sobbed her heart out.

She became aware of her senses when the weather got very cold outside and the Sun was once again covered in clouds. The cold was sleeping into her clothes making her shiver and there was no sign of any body around her. Victoria had left her deserted.

Bella slowly got up. She could feel the heartbreak closing in on her. She could feel the deep darkness of depression pulling her under. Her whole worlds was covered in darkness. Her light was gone.

She somehow managed to get herself in the car and drive it to the highway. She had no idea what had happened in that time. It felt like she was losing every sense of her being.

Suddenly, something caught in her peripheral vision and she slammed the brakes on her trucks. Her truck protested loudly but stopped.

Without any moment's delay, Bella got out of her truck and yelled into the trees, "I told you not to follow me again."

A few moments later, Jacob came out of the trees wearing just his shorts and looming tall, "I told you Bella that this is for your own safety." He said in an irritated voice.

"I don't need safety from you. You are invading in my private life." Bella could feel her anger flare.

"It's not just your private life Bella, it's everybody's. You are putting everybody in danger." He snarled.

"I don't see how that concerns you." Bella was not backing down from this fight.

"We are the protectors Bella. We protect everybody from bloodsuckers." Jacob said marching over to where Bella stood, "And I will do it even if it means protecting you from yourself."

"Do I look like I need protection?" Bella yelled and shoved Jacob hard but he did not budge a millimeter. It only bruised Bella's hands.

"You don't know what you need Bella." Jacob snarled once again, "You are so under the thrall of that monster that you don't know what you are doing to yourself and to other people."

"Get out of my way." Bella tried to move past Jacob to her truck but he stood in her way.

"I said get out." Bella snarled in a venomous voice but Jacob did not back down.

"You need to stay away from your vampire Bella." Jacob said in a commanding voice.

It suddenly hit her like a sucker punch and Bella put her arms around her stomach. "Funny you ask. She doesn't want me anymore."

Suddenly Jacob was once again looming over her, shaking with rage. "She?" He asked enraged and Bella gulped. She had said the wrong word in front of the wrong person.

Suddenly everything dawned on Jacob and he gripped Bella's wrist so hard that he almost broke it. "There is another vampire in town. Someone who is not one of the Cullens."

Bella yelped loudly but Jacob did not pay any attention to her. "All these time, for all these time you were spending time with a human drinker and you did not tell us." He snarled enraged.

Bella yelped again loudly this time and Jacob released her. She cradled her hand to her chest. "I don't have to tell you anything. I don't want to." She spat at the werewolf.

"Where is she?" Jacob asked backing Bella so that she almost stumbled back.

"I won't tell you anything." Bella said with a sudden bravado.

"I have other ways to get the information out of you." Jacob threatened her.

"Do your worst Jacob," Bella said without flinching, "I won't tell you anything. You will have to get the information out of my dead body."

"Then be it so." He suddenly gripped her neck, "Let's see how she does not come for her revenge once she finds out that her mate has been killed." He suddenly looked menacing and psychopathic.

"Jacob." A loud voice sounded that made him loosen his grip, "Let her go."

Jacob loosened his fist enough so that Bella could breathe but he still did not release her. "You don't understand Sam, she is now with a human drinker and in no time will be one of them."

"Then we will come for her at that time. Release her" Sam said in a voice full of authority and Jacob released her.

"You don't know what you are doing Sam." Jacob spat at his own friend and roughly, shoulder checked him, turning back and running away. The moment he disappeared into the trees, a loud growl was heard and then silence fell all over them.

"We don't have any treaty with your lover Bella." Sam said in a voice full of warning, "If we see her we won't hesitate to kill her and I promise you we will find her."

He then looked at her with a look that would have sent chills down her spine had she been not full of adrenaline. "If we see that you are a vampire, the same fate will await you. Remember this."

"Get out of my way Sam." Bella said and unlike Jacob, Sam listened to her.

He kept on looking at her trail long after she was gone.

 **ooo**

 **4th January…**

Bella drove by the road stewing in her anger. Darn that vampire for making her feel things that she had repressed for a long time. Darn her for making her believe in a better and happy future that was once again taken away from her grasp. No, not taken away, snatched. Her future had ended before it could even begin.

Two times she had fallen in love and both the times the vampires left her for good. Both the times she lost more than just her loves. Both the times, a big chunk of her heart was ripped away, never to be put together again. Both the times she had fallen in love when she should have run away. But no, she had to go make the same mistake twice. And twice that mistake had come back to bite her. Which was two more times than she would have wanted. After all, Bella was no masochist.

She could not control her anger anymore. She had to do something. She just had to do. She felt like she would combust anytime. Oddly, right now, there were no tears, this time there was no loss of feeling. This time there was only heartbreak and anger. Lots of anger. At Victoria and at herself. Mostly at herself.

Suddenly her truck gave a lurch to the right after the wheels went over a big piece of rock. Bella drove her truck for a few more minutes and then suddenly stopped it. She looked to her right where the ocean stretched just beyond the cliffs. Bella knew what she was going to do, what she wanted to do.

She turned the engine off and walked out of her truck. She kept on walking until she reached the cliff just after which the ocean started. She looked down the cliff. It had to be more than two hundred feet. She had never been to cliff jumping and suddenly the itch to jump down was overwhelming.

Darn Jacob for showing her this cliff. It was an insane idea that the boy had put in her mind and now she wanted nothing more than to act on it. Darn Jacob once again for starting this mess. Once again, he had managed to put his foot where he should not have. Darn Victoria for her incessant bout of jealousy and leaving her. The nerve of the vampire to say that she was in a relationship with somebody even though she had no claim on her! If the redhead wanted her so badly, why the hell did she not come forward with the admission?

Bella groaned- she was not in a mood for this. Even thinking about it caused her heart to hurt more and she could not bear that pain anymore.

She kicked off her shoes and socks and left them a few feet away from her. After thinking something, she took off her jacket and sweater, leaving her in a thin shirt and her jeans. The cold was now biting against her skin and it made her want to go back into the warmth of her truck. But Bella did not go. She could not go back.

Bella took a deep breath and looked around herself. There were no Edward or Victoria. No sign of them, not even a flickering memory. Was that how she was destined to go out? Alone and unloved?

She shook her head and readied herself for what she was about to do. Bella took a deep breath once more and without another thought, threw herself off the cliff.

The only emotion that was present in Bella's heart was serenity and content and a sense of adventure as she took a plunge into the freezing waters below.

The moment her body came in contact with the freezing water, the coldest of chills she could imagine seeped into her body. If felt like pins and needles were attacking her body from all sides. The splash caused her to lose all the air in her lungs and she instinctively tried to breath under water. The moment she did so, her lungs started to burn and she started squirming in water. For a moment, she came up on the surface, took a deep gulp of air and went down under.

She could imagine something red and green under the water and it was swirling and trying to engulf everything around it. Bella's lungs once started to run out of air and she could not force her body to come up on the surface again. She began to go down under.

She could almost imagine the red was Victoria trying to take her into her arms, accept her. If she could not be with her in life, maybe she would we in death. Maybe there would be Edward too.

Bella began to lose consciousness. There was no air, no light and all she could focus was on the deep throbbing in her lungs. She prepared for her demise and closed her eyes. A wave of serenity washed on her and she stopped fighting the inevitable. She felt like soaring in the sky and then suddenly, she was coming up on the surface again taking big gulps, her lungs burning with every breath she took.

Bella coughed violently and opened her eyes to see Victoria holding on to her tightly with an enraged expression on her face. Bella never thought she looked more angelic.

Victoria spoke harshly, shaking her like a bottle of martini, "What the hell were you doing? Are you trying to kill yourself?"

Bella was do disoriented for a moment that she could not answer anything, "I…"

"If I were late for one moment, you would have died." She did not stop screaming in her ears and Bella felt anger take over her, "What's it to you? Wouldn't you be glad that finally your mate was avenged?"

"Not like this." Victoria spoke harshly, "With you dying my mate would not have been avenged. I would have lost another one." The vampire obviously did not know what she was saying, "I don't want you to die. Don't you see that? I never wanted you to die."

"Funny way of showing that." Bella scoffed trying to move away from Victoria but the vampire did not let her.

"What the hell were to trying to kill yourself? Think of what it would do to your father." Victoria said shaking her harshly.

"Do not bring him into this. It is none of your concern. By the way, I was not trying to kill myself." Bella retorted in the same tone.

"What was that then, huh?" Victoria asked pointing upwards to the cliff, "That was two hundred feet. Are you insane?"

"Shut up." Bella yelled. She was fed up with this. Everything that was building up in her finally exploded.

Bella saw red. She could not see anything, blood was pounding in her ears and her heart was thudding loudly. The only thing that she could feel was anger. Anger over Edward leaving her, Victoria coming to kill her. Victoria leaving her, Jacob threatening her.

It finally got so much that Bella snapped.

Slap. Victoria's head rounded with the blow Bella's hand landed on her cheek. It was so unexpected that it caused the vampire to suddenly release Bella and stumble back in water.

Victoria looked at Bella with stunned eyes. Bella had managed to slap a vampire without even breaking her hand. Victoria's eyes met with Bella's and she saw the purple ring fading slowly until Bella's eyes were back to their original color.

"Bella?" Victoria asked confused.

It was the first time that the vampire had spoken her first name but Bella did not pay any mind to that.

She just grabbed Victoria by her shirt, pulled her closer and crushed their lips together in a deep kiss.

 **ooooooo**


	8. Unequivocally in Trouble

**Chapter 8:**

 **Unequivocally In Trouble**

Bella noticed the soft pair of lips that were pressed to her own. Yes, soft. Way softer than she had expected. In addition, they were not that cold either but maybe that could have been she herself that was near freezing to death. Her limbs were numb and thousands of pointy needles were attacking her all over the body. Had it not been for the vampire holding her, she would certainly be under water right now.

However, just a moment later, those soft pair of lips were moving against her own. Slowly and gently. Hesitantly. It was not a kiss of passion or love. It was a simple kiss born out of the feeling that they were in this together. That whatever was happening, it was happening to both of them and they were both being affected by this. It was a kiss of surrendering yourself to other and it was the kiss that symbolized the end of denial.

The kiss, however, did not last long. Victoria broke the kiss off to stare deeply into Bella's eyes without saying anything and Bella feel doubt and insecurity seep into her. What if Victoria was kissing her just to feel what was it like to kiss her and not actually wanted to share her feelings? Or what if she did not share her feelings after all?

Bella could see the moment when irritation and anger melted into Victoria's eyes and the features on her face grew hard.

"What were you thinking Bella? Did you not think that the jump might kill you?" Victoria asked with a tone teetering on the edge of anger.

"I was… I was just trying to have some fun, feel some rush of adrenaline." Bella said meekly. On the hindsight, that idea really was stupid.

"Did you not have anything else to do to have fun? Even if you did not drown, the water is still cold enough to kill you." Victoria spat with a little more anger in her voice.

Bella had enough. She burst loudly, "It's not like you have anything to do with me. You did not want to be with me. So why do you suddenly care now?"

Victoria took a deep breath before speaking, "I don't want not to be with you Bella. It's just..." She closed her eyes and looked away in helplessness, unable to say anything.

Bella suddenly shivered wildly and Victoria suddenly seemed to recall where they were and she gripped Bella tightly, "We will talk after I get you dry and to some safe place." And without further ado, she started swimming to the bank of the river. Within moments, Bella was out of the water and found herself in front of the Cullen mansion, standing just in her underwear all soaked and dripping on the porch. Bella was fortunate enough that there was nobody to see her like this.

"Hold tight." Victoria said and in a single leap, jumped to the top floor of the building and took Bella in. With the force of a hurricane, Victoria ran around the room fetching Bella some towels and extra clothes to wear.

It took Bella some time to dry herself off and change into the clothes the vampire her lend to her. Throughout that time, Victoria could not be seen anywhere. Bella was not sure if she had stepped out to give her some privacy or was spying at her from somewhere. Bella dismissed that belief quickly. Victoria did not have to step away if she wanted to take a peek at her.

It was only after Bella was dry and comfortable in the house, she saw Victoria coming out of the kitchen with a steaming cup of coffee in her hands. So there she was. They decided to take a seat in the living room on the couch. Bella sat opposite to Victoria and looked at her determinedly. Both of them knew that they needed to talk. It was high time they did.

"Before you begin, I will tell you again that I did not want to kill myself." Bella said, straight to the point, "I was stressed out lately with you acting all angry and jealous and Jacob threatening me, I did not know what to do. I just wanted to feel something."

Victoria ignored everything Bella said and focused on just one thing that had her eyes growing hard and her gripping the couch so strongly that it almost broke, "Jacob threatened you? How dare that mutt try to threaten something that is mine…"

Bella cut Victoria off in the middle, "I am not yours Victoria."

The vampire looked hurt at that exclamation and looked away. However, Bella was not done, "You don't get to do that to me. You don't get to act all hot and cold to me and then expect me to welcome you with open arms. It doesn't work like that."

"I apologize." Victoria said in a cold voice, her eyes full of hardness.

Bella took a sip from her mug and spoke, softly this time, "I am not saying that I don't want to be yours. But in order to do so, you have to be mine too. Relationships don't work one way."

Victoria said nothing. She just kept on looking at Bella with some unreadable expression in her eyes. A few minutes with silence between them. The only sound being Bella sipping coffee from her mug. The heat of the drink soothed her throat and she instantly began to relax.

Bella suddenly recalled something that she had forgotten while being angry with Victoria. "You said that you don't want to lose another mate. You don't want to lose me. Did you mean that?"

Victoria said nothing. She just kept on looking at Bella with the same unreadable expression on her face.

Bella's heart was racing and she was sure the vampire could sense that too. However, that was not the time to think about that. This was the time for the truth. "Victoria, did you mean that?" She asked almost desperately.

The vampire was silent for a long time and then she moved her head in a tiny nod, almost imperceptible. Bella's heart almost burst out of her chest in relief.

"Then why do you act like you don't care about me?" Bella asked. "Why do you intend upon pushing me away when we could be together?"

Victoria could not take anything more, "Because I am scared." She almost yelled. "I am scared." She covered her eyes with her hands. "James was not the first love I lost. I had another when I was a human. Do you know what it is like to lose someone you love two times? Do you know what it is like to live thinking that you will be alone forever? What it is like to love someone and you are nothing more than prey to them?"

Victoria continued without letting Bella speak, "And then here you come, a human who is the reason I lost everything. Yeah, James was the one who wanted a hunt but I was the one who lost everything. Then I start feeling something for you, something other than hate and anger. And I can't take it anymore. I don't know whether to hate you for all the pain you have caused me or accept you as someone who might bring some semblance of happiness for me. I don't want to let you in only for you to leave me one day. I can't survive that. I have been hurt one too many times. I can't take it anymore. I just can't."

Victoria lowered her face into her hands and if vampires could cry, she would be sobbing right now.

Bella did not know what to do in this situation. She just got up and sat beside Victoria on the couch. She put her arms around the vampire and said in a soft tone, "I am sorry. I did not know what you could have been going through. I was only thinking about myself and that you did not want me. I did not even think that something could be bothering you too. I am sorry."

Victoria just shook her said and said in a thick voice, "Please just go."

Bella shook her head and gripped the vampire more tightly. "No I won't. Let me be here for you. I won't even say anything to you. I won't yell at you for pushing for me away. Just don't shut me out. Please Victoria. I love you. Let me be here for you and show you how much I care about you."

Victoria just shook her head tiredly. However, fortunately, she did not let go and let Bella held her tightly.

 **ooo**

They sat there in silence together for a long time until it started to get dark and Bella started feeling sleepy. She was hungry too, having not had anything that since the breakfast. Victoria heard the growl of Bella's stomach and looked at her. "It is getting late. Your father will worry about you. Let's get you home."

Bella looked at Victoria skeptically, "If this is a trick to get me out of here…" She did not complete the sentence and let it hanging in the air.

Victoria shook her head, "I am just concerned about you Bella. I am not trying to get rid of you. We will talk more tomorrow."

Bella could see the sincerity on the vampire's face and simply asked, "You promise?"

Victoria nodded her head earnestly, "I promise. Now let's go." She then went back into the kitchen and came back carrying a small plastic container in her hand. "There is some sandwich in here for you. I thought that you would be too tired to cook so I made it for you." Bella smiled gratefully in return taking the container and squeezed Victoria's hand softly.

Bella stood up and instantly felt her vision going blurry. She put a hand to her head and she felt dizzy. Unable to stand longer, she flopped back down on the couch with a groan.

Victoria was instantly back by her side, "You okay, Bella?"

Bella shook her head no. It was only after the world stopped spinning, she decided to stand again.

"I must be getting sick." Bella murmured, "I feel a headache coming."

"Let's get you home then." The vampire said softly and picked Bella up bridal style. The brunette instantly protested and asked Victoria to put her down.

"But you…" Victoria tried to say but Bella put a hand on her arm to calm her down.

"I am fine now. I will walk." Bella said nodding her head.

The redhead hesitantly let her down but kept a firm grip on her arm. Bella let her help her and they slowly walked out.

Suddenly Bella remembered that she had left her truck at the edge of the cliff and had not gotten any time to get it back. "I don't want to go back to the cliff and then drive back home. But I can't leave it there. Charlie might get suspicious."

Victoria chuckled once and said, "Don't worry. I will drive you home. And if Charlie asks you something, tell him that you were with me."

Bella raised her eyebrows and asked, "And what will I tell him? Until two days ago, he believed that you left me. It would be hard to explain how we suddenly made up and you are my girlfriend now."

Victoria said nothing to that word, "You can tell him anything you like Bella. He'll understand."

It took them fifteen minutes to reach back to the cliff where Bella had parked her truck. She was getting sleepier by the moment and she was glad that the vampire had offered to drive her home. She was not sure that she was in the condition to drive back home.

As they neared close, Bella could see that the light was in her truck was on and the engine was revving. She was sure that she had shut the engine down. As they drew closer, Bella felt Victoria stiffen and let out an angry growl as the vampire stopped walking and pulled Bella protectively behind her. Bella was confused. What was happening?

Suddenly, the driver's side door opened and a tall, muscular figure stepped out the truck. Bella felt the anger grow inside her and she almost snapped at the man who was hounding her relentlessly.

"So you are the new leech Bella is fascinated with." Jacob spoke with his voice dripping with coldness.

Victoria said nothing. She just kept standing in front of Bella. However, Bella knew that she was analyzing the enemy, forming battle plans and strategies to either attack or run away.

"I thought that you would be somebody different." Jacob exclaimed casually and then his voice took an overtone of mockery, "Oh and there is it- red eyes."

He walked a couple steps and Victoria instinctively stepped back, pushing Bella along with her whilst keeping a careful hand on her shoulder. Jacob suddenly stopped walking and wrinkled his nose in disgust, "Yet you all smell the same- you reek of death."

"It's not like you are some expensive essence either mutt." Victoria replied in a caustic voice.

Bella had enough. She cut them off before anybody could throw another insult out, "What are you doing here, Jacob?" Her voice was laden with irritation.

"You don't talk Bella." Jacob retorted sharply. "What are you doing? Spending time with the likes of her? The Cullens at-least did not drink from humans. How low are you gonna fall?"

"You don't talk to her like that." Victoria growled but she did not move away from the spot that she was standing.

"What are you gonna do to me leech?" Jacob snarled, "I can easily kill you. You should not have come here."

"I am not afraid of your little pack of dogs." Victoria said in a dead calm voice. "I have fought and survived stronger and more dangerous things than you. Now get away from the vehicle and go back to your group while you are still alive."

Jacob snarled and started quaking wildly. Bella could almost see the wolf bursting out of his body and knew that the situation would get real ugly real fast.

"Jacob." She yelled, coming out from Victoria's protective stance. "Stop being a jerk. Let us go."

It seemed as if that statement surprised Jacob so much that he stopped quaking and looked at Bella with a deep scowl on his face, "You are seriously choosing her? She's a murderer Bella. She drinks from humans."

Bella flinched but regained her composure, "She doesn't…" She then looked at Jacob and shook her head, "You know what? I don't have to explain myself to you. Yes I choose her."

Jacob looked at her disgustingly and took a step in her direction. Victoria immediately tried to pull her back but Bella put a hand on hers stopping her. "Please go Jacob. It's clear that our friendship doesn't mean anything to you. It's too late now. Let me go and you go your own way."

To her surprise, Jacob actually stepped away from the vehicle but looked at her dangerously, "Don't come complaining to me when you are lying in some ditch dead after she tires of you."

Victoria bared her teeth in a snarl but Bella calmly said, "I won't." She grabbed Victoria's hand and started walking towards her truck.

Suddenly, a gust of wind blew their way and Jacob stiffened. He once again started quaking wildly and snarled, "Your smell. She is turning you in a leech. She is turning you into a monster." And before Bella could understand what was happening, a giant russet wolf was standing where Jacob stood just a moment ago and it was leaping at her.

Everything happened in a moment that Bella could not even comprehend. One moment, she was looking at the wolf hurtling down at her with an unimaginable speed and the next thing she knows is that she is on the ground with a mouthful of dirt and the wolf is nowhere to be seen. Suddenly, a growl that sounded from below the cliff captured her attention and she rushed to the edge of the cliff to see what was happening, ignoring the pain that flared through her wrist.

There, she saw a big wolf and a flash of red, tussling and tumbling down the rocky cliff. Bella's heart was beating wildly in her chest and she could not see clearly, what was happening. There was a lot of roar and angry shouts coming from below and then a loud splash, indicating that they had fallen into the river below.

A lot of splashing could be heard from the river below and Bella was waiting with baited breath, praying to every deity possible that Victoria was fine. Just a few moments later, the said vampire jumped out of darkness landing just beside Bella. She screamed loudly and almost fell back into the river but the vampire grabbed her hand.

Bella took a moment to assess how Victoria was. The vampire was standing bare from the top in front of her. Her shirt was completely torn off, just a small strip hanging from her right shoulder and there was a big gash covering the entirety of her belly, starting from her shoulder and ending right into her naval. It was like someone had taken a chisel and vandalized a marble sculpture.

Bella could only look at the gash in horror, her heart hammering wildly in her chest.

"You..." She could not say a single word.

"I am fine." Victoria shrugged, "He caught me off guard when we fell into the water. I was not fast enough."

"Jacob?" Bella asked questioningly.

"He escaped when he noticed that he could not win." Victoria growled. "Now let's get you back to your home."

"But you are hurt…" Bella protested feebly. She did not know what to do. She had never seen a vampire injured before. Granted that the wound could not bleed, it still did not look good.

"I will be fine." Victoria said tightly. "After I have my fill of the blood, I will heal. Now let's get you home."

Bella quietly shrugged off her jacket that was given to her by Victoria and put it around the vampire to cover her and the gash that was making Bella nauseated.

Victoria took Bella by her hand who was still standing shell-shocked. The vampire almost had to drag her to the truck. Bella clearly noticed that the vampire was having trouble walking but she decided not to comment for the time being. She had to digest other things for the moment.

The ride home was spent in silence, which was only broken by the loud thud of Bella's heart and the pounding of blood in her ears. Her heart had still not calmed down and Bella kept looking out of the window every once in a while to ascertain that Jacob and his pack of wolves were not following them. Victoria stopped the car just as they were about to make the final turn.

"It's best that your father does not know what happened today. You will be putting him in more danger. Act normal and call me if the wolves decide to pay you a visit." Victoria said seriously.

Only after Bella nodded in understanding, the vampire got out of the truck and let Bella come over to the driver's side. When Bella started the engine, she noticed that Victoria was standing close to her. The vampire tenderly put a hand to Bella's cheek and said in a gentle voice, "Take care, Bella. I don't want anything to happen to you. I…" The vampire wanted to say something else but she shook her head and the coldness on Bella's cheek disappeared.

"Victoria…" Bella tried to call out to the vampire but she was long gone. Bella decided to head to her home. She would be seeing Victoria in a couple hours in her bedroom. Still, Bella could not explain why she felt like that sounded like a goodbye.

 **ooo**

Charlie was watching some baseball game when Bella closed the door and immediately her father looked at her with concerned eyes, "Bella? Where were you?"

"I…" Bella did not know what to say. She could not tell her father the truth where she went earlier that day and what happened with her. "I was with a friend." She hated lying to her father but there were some things that she could not just let him into.

Charlie raised an eyebrow in suspicion and then he shook his head and sighed loudly. He stood and walked over to Bella, "I am just concerned about you Bells." He said gently. "You are once again falling into that habit of yours where you would sit back for hours on end without doing or saying anything. I cannot bear seeing you like that."

Bella knew that it must have taken her father a lot of effort to say what he did. Neither one of them were people who would easily share their emotions.

"I am fine Dad. I am really fine." She said with a false smile on her face. If her father noticed it, he did not say anything. "I am quite tired. I am going to sleep now." She said and awkwardly tried to move past her father.

Charlie called out name and Bella stopped on the stairs.

"Yeah Dad?" She asked looking back at him.

Charlie once again sighed and simply said, "Goodnight Bells. Take care."

"Night Dad." She said and quickly escaped to her bedroom.

Bella knew that she was pulling away from her father and it was likely that he realized that too. But this was something she could make herself to stop. Things were going on in her life, certain things that should be kept hidden. If his Dad had any inkling about any supernatural thing, there was no saying what would happen to him.

Bella sighed loudly and flopped down on her bed. What was happening between her and her father could be pondered on later. First, she had to retrospect on everything that had happened today. Bella's stomach once again growled loudly and she pulled out the sandwich the redhead had packed for her. Within no time, she had finished her first sandwich and was chewing her way with the second.

After she was done, Bella wrapped the paper into a roll and threw it into the dustbin. She flopped on the bed. Bella closed her eyes and starting going through with the things. First, she realized that it was quite stupid of her to jump into the river. She could have died or something else. It was only because of Victoria that she was alive. How did the vampire know where to find her? Was she keeping tabs on her? Bella would not put that past Victoria. However, she could not blame the vampire for that. Quite possibly that habit of the feral woman had saved her life.

However, she knew that after what happened today, she could not go back to fighting and bickering with the vampire. The kiss between them was a testament to that fact. And heavens, the kiss was phenomenal. Bella had not kissed many people in her life. There was just a boy in her freshman year that liked her and the kisses she shared with Edward. Now, there was Victoria. The kiss- she could not even describe how wonderful that felt. It was everything that she wanted. It was better than the ones she shared with Edward. It was warm, sweet, and full of love. It was the best kiss she had ever had in her life. But maybe that could have been biased. After all, it was so long ago that she had her last kiss.

However, what was important was that she wanted more of those kisses and something more. She wanted Victoria to want her, she wanted Victoria to desire her. About that, she knew something had changed in Victoria today. Maybe the possibility that she might lose another mate had made Victoria confess her feelings.

Mate. The words still felt foreign in Bella's mind. Edward never called her, his mate. She was his girlfriend. The word mate sounded something animalistic, something primal. Bella was not sure how she felt about that but she was glad that Victoria acknowledged that there was some connection between them. A connection that went deeper than simply attraction and Bella was glad that the redhead brought this into focus.

Sweet things aside, there was something else that needed to be addressed. Jacob finding out that Bella is with another vampire and he had directly attacked that vampire. In addition, he had managed to wound and hurt Victoria. If he did that once, he could do that again. They had to stay safe and avoid the wolves at all cost.

Bella had started to feel exhausted and a little fuzzy in her mind. She did not know what was happening. Maybe it was exhaustion pulling her in deep. It started after Victoria dropped her home and it was only growing slowly. Maybe it was the result of the adrenaline rush that had made her grow all lethargic.

Bella tried to stay awake but could not fight the fatigue and was pulled under.

 **ooo**

 _Bella knew she was dreaming. She could tell that in her dreams. But nothing made sense. All she could see was images and colors that she felt were ripped apart from time itself. Something was happening. Something strange. Something weird._

 _Then the images changed and Bella found herself back on the cliff. It was not like any dream she had ever had before. She could clearly see everything and feel things too. If Bella was not sure that was dreaming, it would have been hard to tell it apart from a dream._

 _Suddenly the ground from beneath her feet shifted and she tumbled down. The world was going round and everything felt dizzy. But before she could hit the water below, it felt like she was sucked out of the very air and deposited back on the cliff. Her stomach lurched violently and she staggered back, falling on the ground. What was happening? Never before, she had a dream like this. Never before had anything felt so real. Bella was now not very sure that she was dreaming._

 _Something sounded far to her right and Bella started walking that way. After she had walked just a few meters, the world once again shifted and she found herself standing in the forest. The Cullen mansion stood right in front of her and it was burning. Bella could only watch in horror as the fire ate away the pristine building, turning it into a black, charred piece of worthlessness._

 _From behind the house, some animalistic noise were coming and then there was a loud growl. Bella stumbled back instinctively. She turned her head all around to see where the noise was coming from._

 _What she saw next had Bella frozen to the ground. Victoria stumbled out from behind a tree, all broken and battered. Bella ran as fast as could and caught the vampire before she could fall on the ground. She gently lowered her on the ground. The vampire was bleeding profusely and there were cuts littered all over her body. The vampire gave a violent cough and looked into Bella's eyes._

" _Go save yourself." The redhead then closed her eyes as she slumped down in her arms, breathless._

" _No." Bella screamed in terror. "No, Victoria. No. Please wake up. You have to fight this. Wake up." The redhead did not wake up._

 _Another growl sounded from behind the trees and Bella saw Jacob appear in his wolf form. Two another wolves flanked him on either side._

" _I told you leech." The wolf spoke, "You are gonna die."_

 _Bella looked down at her hands. They were pale white, like a vampire's. Bella let out a loud growl at the wolves as she jumped towards them in fury._

Bella woke up with a flinch. Her heart was beating loudly and she was about to jump off her bed in panic. It was only a dream, Bella reminded herself. It was only a dream. But the why did it feel so real? Never before, she had had a dream that felt so real. What was happening to her?

Bella looked to the empty rocking chair in her room and then the window that was closed. There was no sign that the vampire had been in her room. Maybe she went on a hunt, Bella's mind supplied. Or she could have been caught up in something.

 _Or she could have been attacked,_ the dark part of her mind supplied. Bella shook her head to dispel the negative thoughts. Victoria was safe, she reminded herself. However, that did not explain the dreams. Had the vampire put something in the sandwich? What? Why? Bella shook her head. It did not seem like it. If she were to believe that Victoria would do such a thing, she would put something to make Bella keep sleeping through the night, not have weird dreams.

However, what happened in the dream was very peculiar. She was the vampire and Victoria was the human who had been attacked by the wolves. Bella groaned. Nothing made sense.

Bella saw her mobile phone that was lying on the nightstand. She picked it the up and dialed Victoria's number. The phone rang for a few moments and then it ended. Huh, strange. Bella tried again but the phone was not picked up. After the fourth time the vampire did not receive her call, Bella started feeling anxious. What was happening? Where was Victoria?

Bella could not sit anymore on the bed without getting panicked and anxious. Her fear was climbing up as time passed and by the ninth call, she could not control herself anymore.

What was happening? Where was Victoria? _Something is wrong,_ Bella's mind supplied and she could not suppress that anymore. Something was amiss.

 _Bella._ The word rang in her ears. Victoria! Bella perked up but the window did not open. No vampire climbed in. _Bella._ The same faint voice rang in her ears and Bella started to feel paranoid. Something strange was happening to her. Bella put the phone down on the nightstand and started pacing in the room.

 _Bella._ The voice once again sounded and the said woman realized that she was not hearing voices. The voice was in her head. The sound was getting weaker and it sounded like Victoria was in a lot of pain. Bella's heart started beating faster. Maybe Victoria really was in danger.

Suddenly Bella recalled something and she stumbled back with a jerk. The window was close, there was no light in the room, and yet, she could see everything clearly. Bella looked at her reflection in the mirror and noticed that her irises were glowing and had a purple ring around them. She recalled something else- she had hit Victoria earlier with all of her might and it was the vampire who got hurt and not her. What was happening to her?

 _Bella._ The voice sounded again in her ears and Bella groaned, clutching her head in frustration. It felt like someone was hammering her head from the inside. Bella could not stop the curse that left her mouth.

Suddenly, everything went dark and Bella saw that she was standing in a field. Three wolves surrounded Victoria, she was missing one arm and she was fallen on the ground. A big russet wolf jumped at her and Bella screamed. Just a moment later, she was back in her room, plunged in darkness.

She instantly knew that she was not dreaming. She was having some sort of vision, how or why, she did not know. She just knew that she had to be there where her vampire was.

Bella focused determinedly and she could see clearly, the ring around her eye once again prominent. Bella quickly pulled a page that she kept in her drawer and quickly penned a letter to her father with shaking hands. She knew what she had to write.

 _I am sorry Dad but if you are finding this, it might be too late. I have to go. Just know that I was happy that I had you for a father. I will always love you._

 _Take care,_

 _Bella._

Bella quickly folded the paper with tear in her eyes. She might not see her father after today and she knew that she had to do this. There was a huge chance that she might die today. But if she did that saving Victoria's life, she would not regret that.

Bella quickly opened the window and looked down. She knew she could make the jump. She gripped the windowsill and launched herself off the ledge, landing down on the ground as lithe as a cat. She did not know what was happening. Nor had she the time to find out. It seemed like she was turning into a vampire without actually being bitten.

Bella knew she could not take her truck. It would wake Charlie up and it was not fast enough. Bella knew that she could do this. Bella took a deep breath, focused all of her mind on saving Victoria and launched herself towards the Cullen mansion.

Bella ran fast, faster than she had ever ran, faster than she believed she could go. The wind was whipping on her face and her hair was blowing in the air. She did not stop for anything. She knew she had to find Victoria before it was too late.

It took her only a minute to reach the Cullen mansion. It was fortunately not on fire. However, that little thing did not mean that Victoria was not in danger. She quickly ran inside the house and checked all the rooms and even the bathrooms. There was deadly silence inside. Nobody was there. Suddenly, Bella lost her powers and felt fatigue overtake her.

No. Bella shouted in her mind. She could not afford to lose whatever was powering her up.

"Come on, come on." Bella shouted madly and grabbed her hair, pulling them from theirs roots. "Come on." She screamed loudly but nothing happened.

Forgetting everything, Bella quickly ran outside towards the direction she believed the fight might have been taking place. It was dark outside and she could not see clearly but Bella kept on running. She was panting loudly, was out of breath and her shirt was soaked with her sweat. She had started to stumble but she could not stop.

She ran into the forest getting whipped by branches and leaves in her face but she dared not stop. Suddenly, her foot caught on something and Bella landed face-first on the ground. Her arms was scraped and her lips were caught on her teeth and she could taste the blood on them.

Bella gripped the tree trunk for support and got up. _Bella._ The voice sounded again and Bella felt like her head would split open with the pain. Suddenly, she felt coldness washing over her body and once again, that latent vampire superpower had turned back on.

Ignoring her wounds, Bella shot through the trees like an arrow in the direction she knew Victoria was fighting the wolves.

It did not take her long to reach the open field where she saw the same thing that she saw in her visions. Victoria was fallen on the ground, her legs unable to hold her and she was missing her right arm. The arm that was in the black wolf's mouth.

Bella felt rage overtake and she barreled into the wolf that was holding Victoria's arm. There was a loud bang and the wolf was thrown away. Bella grabbed Victoria's severed arm and held it securely in her grip. The second wolf that tried to stop her met the same fate. Bella jumped in the air and kicked the wolf sharply in its face causing it to fall down on the ground with a whimper.

Bella quickly ran towards the vampire and pulled her to her feet.

"Come on, let's go." Bella muttered urgently.

"Bella?" Victoria looked up confused. Her eyes were trained on Bella's lips that were bleeding and her eyes turned coal black. She instinctively moved towards Bella leaning slowly.

Bella shook the vampire wildly with panic in her eyes. "Come on, let's go. We don't have enough time."

Victoria shook her head to dispel the haze of Bella's blood. "What are you doing here?" She asked confused.

"I will tell you later. Come on, hurry up." Bella said and tried to reattach the vampire's severed arm back to her arm but it did not stick.

"It's not healing." Bella growled in frustration and helplessness.

"It will take some time." Victoria murmured and kept pressure on her arm, trying not to move it too much. Bella dragged the vampire as fast as she could. However, amidst all the panic, she had forgotten about the third wolf that now stood in their way. Jacob. Who was now growling loudly. Victoria let out a growl of her own to match the wolf's.

Bella was now in a very dangerous situation. She knew that with Victoria hurt, there was not enough chances of them surviving all three of the wolves. Also, there was no telling with her fickly power when would it stop working.

Bella inched closer to Victoria as the wolf slowly walked towards them with a deep growl coming out of its throat.

"You knew this would happen, didn't you?" Bella simply stated to Victoria.

"Yes." The vampire replied in the same tone.

"Then why do you still do this?" Bella's voice held confusion and accusation.

"Because I thought that by doing this they would leave you alone." Victoria said shaking her head, "Now that you are still here risking your life, can we focus on saving ourselves?" Her voice held some emotion Bella could not put a finger to.

Jacob was now very close to them to be able to attack and both Bella and Victoria took a battle stance. With a growl, Jacob jumped and Victoria grabbed Bella and jumped through the air, landing behind Jacob. The wolf stopped in its tracks, his muscles and fur rippling and instantly turned back.

However, by that time it took Jacob to stop and turn back, Bella had grabbed Victoria's hand and they were running back as fast as they could.

"Is it a good time to tell you that something is happening to me?" Bella asked the vampire.

"How…?" The redhead spoke in an astonished tone but they did not stop running.

"Don't know." Bella said, "I just woke up…" The duo were knocked over by a huge force running straight into them.

Victoria managed to get herself back on her feet in no time at all but Bella, who was not that graceful, tumbled and rolled on the ground before coming to a stop. The black wolf was standing over them looking menacing, his mouth open, teeth glistening with saliva.

Victoria rushed over to Bella to help her up but in that short moment, the other two wolves had caught up to them cutting off their exit.

The black wolf jumped at them and Victoria slammed right into it. A huge crunching noise rang into the field and both of them were thrown away. Suddenly, Jacob was onto Victoria and he bit her right where her arm was severed and the redhead screamed in pain. Bella did not know what happened next. She would later call it instinct but in that moment it was a primal need to save her mate. She was in the air and right before she reached Jacob, she turned in a pirouette and kicked the wolf right into its nose. There was a sharp crunch and the wolf stumbled back, bleeding.

Bella let out an animalistic growl looking at the three wolves directly. While Jacob tried to recover, the other two jumped at her.

Everything happened in slow motion then. She could see the wolves jumping at her and she jumped high into the air, landing right behind them. With a speed she never knew was possible, she turned back and grabbed the light-brown wolf with its tail and slammed it right into the black one. Then she ran back to the smaller of the still falling wolves and pummeled the brown one to the ground, landing punches after punches. With a sharp jab to its carotid, it was down whimpering and slowly turned into a man lying in a fetal position.

Paul. Bella's mind said and paused for a moment. In the back of her mind, she knew that the wolves were men but she not anticipated that. She staggered back with surprise and then momentary pause caused her to lose her focus.

It was enough for the black wolf to take a grab at her and sink his teeth into her shoulder, right where it met her neck, taking out a big chunk of her flesh. Bella screamed in pain and was down on the ground whimpering excruciatingly. In no time at all, her right side was soaked with her blood. She tried to get up but she could not muster the power to. Her power had once again deserted her. She felt her body giving up and she could not keep herself from falling down.

Suddenly, Victoria was upon the black wolf, getting it away from Bella with a sharp kick to his neck. The wolf stumbled back in surprise and Victoria grabbed his body. Her arm was attached now and she used all of her power to squeeze the body. The wolf howled in agony when his bones started breaking and he was unable to maintain his wolf form.

Victoria threw the body away from her and it landed on the ground with a thud causing him to scream loudly. The redhead turned back to look at Jacob who was beginning to gain his focus with fury in her eyes. Not wasting a single moment, she started pummeling him just like she saw Bella do that to the other wolf.

Her haze was broken when Bella groaned on the ground. Victoria was stuck between wanting to kill the wolves and going to Bella. She had to choose fast. Bella had lost a lot of blood. It would not be long before she would lose her life.

The redhead knew what she would do. She left Jacob and rushed towards Bella. The girl was lying on the ground face down and her condition did not look good. Victoria slowly turned her back and gasped in horror. Her should was bitten off badly with the wolf-bite entering her neck. Bella was gasping in pain and was drifting in and out of consciousness.

Victoria picked the human up bridal style, clutching her close to her body. "Hang on, Bella." She said, "I won't let you die."

With a single glance at the wolves who were fallen on the ground, Victoria took off like a rocket, running across the meadow as fast she can while taking special care about the precious human, she carried in her arms.

Victoria kept on running as fast as she could. She jumped over rocks, crossed the streams and ran through the forest without stopping for a moment. It was only when Bella groaned in her arms that she stopped.

"Bella." Victoria put the girl down on the ground, keeping her head propped up in her arms.

"Where are we?" The girl asked groggily, whimpering in pain when she moved.

"Far." Victoria did not elaborate, "The wolves will not find us. You are seriously injured Bella, I am going to turn you." She said with a determined look on her face.

Bella shook her head no and Victoria could only stare at her in horror.

"What are you saying?" Victoria's mind was running miles a minute and if her heart could beat, it would be out of her chest.

"Let me go, please." Bella said with pain in her voice, "Go live your life."

"You are my life Bella." Victoria said looking at the girl in her arms earnestly, "Please let me change you."

Bella shook her head with tears in her eyes, "I will only drag you down. I am the reason you were in trouble today. You could have died today. You have to let me go."

"NO." Victoria said loudly, making Bella flinch, "Why are you doing this? All those time you wanted me and now when I want you too, you are telling me to let you go?" Her voice was laden with anger and pain.

"Please." Bella said sobbing.

"I won't." Victoria said with panic in her voice, "Please Bella, I love you. I can't live without you. You are the reason I am alive today. You saved me. Please don't do this."

Bella started sobbing and said with pain in her voice, "I can't live like that with you hating me and only liking me from afar. I can't live through that. If you can't be with me, please let me go."

Victoria looked at Bella with panic whose heart had now started to slow down. She spoke with desperation in her voice, "I will stay with you Bella. I will forever be with you. Please don't let go. I will do anything you say. I will not stay away for a moment. Please fight this. For me."

The vampire looked down at the woman in her arms who breath had suddenly grown shallower and her heart was stuttering. Bella did not have much time.

"Bella." Victoria cried with urgency in her eyes and the brunette opened her eyes once more to say softly, "I love you." With that, her eyes closed again.

 **ooo**

Bella woke up to a burning thirst in her throat. The moment she thought about that, it grew hotter. Bella stood up and saw that she could see everything clearly, even in the night. She looked up in the sky and there were more stars than she had ever seen in her life.

She looked back down to her hands, saw that they were pale, and looked like they were made of granite. She flexed her fingers, nothing felt different from before. However, she felt different in her body, strong, invincible, and perfect. She closed her eyes and listened to everything around her, the sound of the wind, small insects making sounds as they went by, birds chirping in the air and there was a sound of a deep breath being taken.

Bella opened her eye and looked towards the direction of the sound. She saw that the redhead was standing in the lake nearby with water coming up to her upper back, hiding her beauty from Bella's eyes. She could only see the upper portion of her naked back, which was glistening with water.

Victoria was obviously aware of Bella waking up but she did not turn back. Bella slowly walked towards the water. Thinking of something, she slowly took off her shirt, then the jeans. Bella had no idea where the redhead had procured the clothes from, however, in that moment she did not care. Slowly, she took off all the clothes and started walking in a slow gait towards the naked beauty standing in the water. It felt like before when Victoria had taken her to that pond and did a strip-show. It felt so long since that time.

Bella could run as fast as she could but she took her time. There was all the time in the world for her now. For them, to stay together. She slowly waded into the water and walked up to the redhead who was standing with her back to her. Bella wrapped her arms around the feral beauty and put her chin on her shoulder.

"Hi beautiful." She said and was surprised to notice how bell like her own voice sounded. The redhead turned to face her with a smile on her face, "You are now just as beautiful as me Bella."

Bella was struck by how beautiful Victoria looked now that she was a vampire too and she could see her with perfect vision. She honestly could stare at her the whole day.

Bella laughed in that same chime. "No, you will be the most beautiful person to me." Then she remembered something and her voice turned serious, "The wolves?"

Victoria's face grew hard, "I don't know." Bella could almost hear the growl in her voice, "Saving you was more important than killing them. Therefore, I took you and ran. We are safe now. They will never find us."

Bella shook her head morosely, "I don't know how I will ever face my Dad knowing that I basically wrote a goodbye letter. He must be thinking that I took my own life."

Victoria hooked her finger under Bella's chin and brought her eyes up to meet her own, "It's okay Bella. Keeping him away from our world was the right thing to do. You might have just saved his life."

"But…" Bella tried to say something but the redhead put a finger to her lips, stopping her. "Let him grieve Bella. He needs to know that he might never see you ever again in life. Meeting you will only get him killed if you can't control yourself. When I will know that you can control yourself, you can meet him."

Bella only nodded her head in understanding. However, it did not mean that it hurt any less.

They kept on holding each other for a long while. To dispel the awkward silence, Bella looked up at Victoria and said, "I am not drinking from humans."

Victoria just laughed in that same bell-like voice and hugged Bella tightly, "Whatever you say, Bella. Whatever you say."

Bella looked deep into Victoria's eyes, suddenly gripping her tighter to her own naked body. The redhead let out an oomph but Bella did not care.

"So this is it?" Bella asked with hope in her voice, "We will stay together?"

"Together." Victoria nodded.

"Forever?" Bella's face was sporting a huge smile.

"Forever." Victoria could not control the smile that spread on her own face seeing Bella smile like that, so carefree.

They slowly leaned towards each other and just as their lips met, Bella tightened her arms around the redhead and they melded into one.

Their journey was a long one, full of pain, full of heartbreak. But as they say, there is a small line between love and hate, something beautiful grew out of the hateful relationship they started with. It was not their happy ending. It was their happy beginning. Together. Forever.

 **ooooooo**

 **So this is it. This is where the story ends. I hope you liked it. Before publishing this chapter, I went back to the previous ones and edited and changed things. If there are any errors, please feel free to let me know.  
**

 **I am sorry that I had to end this story so suddenly. If I had waited any longer, I would not have ever written it. But I hope it's not too stilted.**

 **This is the first novel-length story I've ever finished. I have more stories that I will go back to write. Hope it happens.**

 **See you soon.**

 **Read and Review.**

 **Peace!**

 **-mindependent.**


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